


Colourful Endings

by readerconsumed



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst, Cuddles, F/M, Fluff, Intoxication, M/M, Misunderstandings, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Road Trip, Star Gazing, alcohol consumption, general sassyness, unabashed grinding?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-29
Updated: 2015-09-25
Packaged: 2018-04-06 19:11:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 42,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4233405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/readerconsumed/pseuds/readerconsumed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean decides to take a rather uptight and sheltered Castiel to a night club to "let loose".<br/>Castiel ends up surprising them both when he actually manages to do so and then some.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So this scene was supposed to be in another fic I'm working on, but I decided to cut it and make it a one-shot instead.... Aaaaand now it's a whole separate fic entirely XD. Enjoy guys
> 
> There is music that accompanies it, the links worked last time I checked, but just in case this is the playlist:
> 
> 1)Mike Koglin- Kosmonaut (Naian Radio edit)  
> 2)David Guetta ft Sia- She Wolf  
> 3)Clean Bandit ft Jess Glynne- Real Love (Club Killers Remix)
> 
> in this order, easy to follow when you see the links.

 

Dean watched Castiel with fond curiosity

 

The man looked like he had never been to a club before, staring around helplessly at his surroundings and trying to move through the crowd without having to touch anyone, but failing miserably and looking like he had contracted some life threatening disease with every accidental touch. Dean felt a little bad for leading Castiel through the trance floor instead of going around it, but it was much quicker this way than to have to go around through the drum and bass floor on the other side, which although may have contained a less auspicious crowd, would have been way too much effort.

 

“Dean!” Castiel shouted over the [music](http://hypster.com/playlists/user/readerconsumed?7108624)

 

“Yeah?” Dean shouted his reply over his shoulder to Castiel, turning his head to look at him properly.

 

Castiels eyes were wide and he was trying to move as close to Dean as possible for fear of being lost to the crowd.

The edges of Deans mouth twitched with the urge to laugh at the poor guy, he really was out of his element here.

 

Thank goodness Charlie had convinced him to go with a pair of dark blue jeans instead of what had looked like a pair of pants you would wear at a cubicle job. He wore a dark blue v-neck shirt, that fit well on him, showing off just enough but not looking like he was wearing a shirt a size too small, it was just right. Dean was very distracted with the way Cas looked tonight and he was hoping he could keep himself from staring too much.

 

Dean reached out to Castiel and pulled on his arm, bringing the man in close to his side.  Castiel instantly stiffened and stared up at Dean with wide, curious eyes. Dean then wrapped  his right arm around Castiels waist and the other he placed flat on Castiels mid section, so that he could properly lead Castiel  through the large number of strangers without him having a heart attack.

 

And if it meant that Dean got some well over due direct contact with Castiel, well then it would work even better.

 

Dean led the way swerving the both of them in and out of the people and towards the bar area. He could feel Castiels heart beating disconcertingly fast and he wasn't sure if it was the contact Dean had made, or just everything else about the current situation.

 

Castiel all but ran for the bar stool when they were close enough and sat quickly; sucking in a deep breath and then letting it out slowly.

 

Dean sat slowly next to Castiel on the other bar stool while looking him over worriedly. The music continued to shift in and out on itself with a quick and noisy tempo.

 Dean scrunched up his nose at the music. It really wasn't his thing, but he knew it was his guilty pleasure whilst intoxicated.

 

Maybe this wasn't such a great idea after all?

 

“Damn Cas, I didn't realise you had such an issue with the club scene, you could have said something you know?”

 

Castiel lifted his head to regard Dean with a shy smile. “No, that's not it, I don't mind it, I just don't really get out much that’s all, and if I do, going to a large room packed to the rafters with sweaty, drunk people trying to “grind” on me is not the first item on my to do list.” Castiel scoffed as he made air quotations.

 

Deans lips started to twitch again except this time he felt it a little bit harder to hold back his laughter.

He let out a loud bark of laughter and just went with it, giving the moment a full bodied laugh.

 

Castiel frowned at Dean and tilted his head the way he usually did when he was confused

 

“I don't understand why my discomfort is so amusing to you” Castiel frowns while trying to raise his voice over the music.

 

Deans laugh was now subsiding into a hearty chuckle which he was trying to control before he answered. He lifted his finger gesturing for a minute as well as gesturing to Cas.

 

“Firstly, the word “grind” coming out of your mouth is just fantastic.” Dean chuckled out the last word and carried on before Castiel could comment. “Secondly, you say you don't mind the club scene, and then go on to describe it in a way that seems like you pretty much hate it, you're a really confusing guy Cas.”

 

Castiel stared at Dean with the same frown he wore when Dean had started laughing. His eyes shifted around the room slightly, while he seemed to be thinking of a comeback. He could only catch glimpses of his surroundings through the flashing and fading club lights of multiple colours.

 

 His eyes fell on a particular couple that seemed about ready to have sex right there on the dance floor, the girl grinding  her hips unabashed against the front of her partner. Castiel made a face that suggested he didn't approve and turned his gaze back to Dean who seemed to be looking in the same direction Castiel had been looking.

 

Dean only smiled and shook his head, while turning back to face Castiel regarding him with a  lopsided grin and a raised eyebrow. “Does PDA make you uncomfortable Mr Novak?” Dean asked using what he had earlier referred to as his “businessman voice”

 

Castiel made another displeased face, but this time it was aimed at Dean.

 

“Is that what you consider affection Mr Winchester?” Castiel asked mirroring Deans businessman voice.

 

Dean snorted and moved to flag down the bartender with a wave as he answered. “Well someones a prude!”

 

Castiels jaw dropped as he stared back at Dean.

 

“I-.” He started but was cut off when the bartender had come around to them.

 

“What can I get you guys?” A tall rather beautiful, blonde girl, with a bright as day smile asks.

 

Castiel didn't have to answer as it seemed that Dean had already decided on what they were drinking.

 

“Two whiskeys and I'd say about 4 shots of Tequila, and ah I suggest making one of those whiskeys on the rocks.” He said eyeing Castiel.

 

Castiel gave Dean a look that suggested he was not happy about the order; the contents or the amount, but decided not to make a big deal about it, considering Dean had insisted earlier that  it was all 'his treat'.

 

Dean seemed pleased with Castiels silence and winked at the bartender, confirming the order. “Thanks Love.”

 

The blonde nodded and turned to Castiel, smiling shyly before ducking her head and walking off to get their drinks.

 

Castiel followed her with his eyes as she walked away.

 

She was very beautiful. He thought to himself. It almost didn't seem right that she was working behind a bar in a seedy club like this.

 

When he turned back to Dean, the man was looking at him with a straight face that seemed devoid of any particular emotion.

 

“She's pretty hot don't ya think?” Dean asked casually still staring intently at Castiel, a small smile creeping onto his lips.

 

Castiel raised his eyebrows slightly at the very forward questioning “Uhm, yes I suppose she is very attractive.” He replied with a furrowed brow, not understanding the point of the current conversation.

 

Dean narrowed his eyes at Castiel and smirked as if what Castiel had said was amusing in some way.

 

There was a moment of silence between the two of them allowing Castiel to focus on the music once again, tapping his foot lightly on the bar stool foot rest. It wasn't too bad. He thought absently to himself. Not his choice in any way but then again nothing about this place suited his liking very much.

 

The bartender came back with two glasses of whiskey; one on the rocks, placed in front of Castiel and the whiskey – neat-  in front of Dean. She then pulled out four shot glasses and a bottle of Tequila and filled the glasses to the brim.

 

“Enjoy fellas.” She said winking at Castiel.

 

Castiel smiled unknowingly and mumbled a small “Thank you.” as he stared at the row of shots.

 

Dean was just lifting his whiskey glass to his lips when Castiel mumbled something he didn't quite catch.

 

“What was that?” Dean asked squinting at Castiel as if the music had impaired his vision as well as his hearing.

 

“I- I said I'm not a prude.” Castiel grumbled louder.

 

Dean laughed and slapped Castiel on the back, almost making Castiel drop the Whiskey tumbler he had just picked up.

 

“I was just joking Cas.” Dean chuckled

 

“All I'm saying is, is if you were as drunk and horny as those two seem to be, I doubt you would care about what other people thought.” Dean continued with a shrug.

 

Castiel seemed to think about this as he took a sip of his drink. It burned its way down his throat and came to rest in his stomach like a small log fire. He screwed up his face at the sensation before answering the other man who was looking at him with an amused expression.

 

“I doubt I could ever be that drunk.”

 

Dean raised his eyebrows at Castiel and gave him a smile that could only be described as predatory.

 

“Well then, I think I'm going to take you up on that challenge.”

 

Castiel snapped his head up to stare at Dean with a bemused expression.

 

“That was not a challenge nor an invitation to get me drunk, Dean!”

 

Dean grabbed two of the Tequila shots from the line up and placed one of them in front of Castiel while holding the other one at chest height.

 

“Well it is now, come on Cas, let loose for once, I want to see you drunk!”

 

Castiel glared at Dean but picked up his shot. “I let loose plenty enough, thank you.”

 

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever you say you little rebel you.” Dean quipped raising his shot glass a little higher in a salute.

 

“Okay, so here's to those that wish us well, and those who don't can go to hell!”

 

 

                                                        

* * *

 

 

“Yer tellin' me that you've never been outta the country before!” Dean asked shocked, raising his eyebrows and being more dramatic than he usually would be. Excessive amounts of alcohol can do that to a person.

 

“No! I always wanted to though, my brother Gabriel always told me how great Bangkok an' Amsterdam were.”

 

Dean chuckled “Your brother must like to party then.”

 

Castiel frowned at the other man, whilst trying not to sway “Why would you come to that conclusion?”

 

“Seriously Cas? Amsterdam and Bankok?” Dean stared at Castiel like he was trying to transfer knowing to the other man telepathically. Castiel just stared back, brow creased and completely oblivious to what Dean was trying to explain.

 

“Ah, nevermind.” Dean said with a wave of his hand and reaching to take another shot from the row of Jagermiester they had been working through.

 

“Hey I like this song! You wanna dance?” Dean asked excitedly hearing the song filter through the fuzziness created by the few rounds of Tequilas.

 

He was already jumping unsteadily off of his bar stool before Castiel had replied.

 

Castiel slid off of his own chair following Deans example, before opening his eyes wide as if only just hearing Deans suggestion.

 

“I- I don't think I know how to” Castiel stammered looking perturbed.

 

Dean frowned at Castiel searching his face for any signs that he was joking but only found pure worry and this caused him to burst out laughing “That's very funny Cas, come on let's go.”

 

Dean tugged on Castiels belt loop on his pants but was stopped short when Castiel didn't move. He turned to look back at Castiels still very wide eyed and distraught expression.

 

“I'm serious Dean.” Castiel was now staring at the finger tugging at his belt hoop.

 

Dean could have sworn that he saw a smile playing across Cas' lips when he looked at Deans hand, but the expression was so quickly replaced by a look of discomfort and flight that Dean couldn't really be sure.

 

“Hey Cas, look man.”

 

Castiel looked up at Dean who had now moved closer and was now resting his hand on the small of Castiels back and leaning down to talk into his ear. Deans body was so close to Castiels, it radiated a heat that made Castiel want something he couldn't be sure of. He knew this was not something he would usually condone; such close proximity from another person, especially one as intimidating as he felt Dean was, but at the same time, he had to forcefully stop himself from leaning both into Deans hand at his waist and the lips at his ear.

 

In the state Dean was in, he felt absolutely certain that there was nothing wrong with touching the other man this way, he had always been a very handsy and flirtatious drunk and Castiels aversion to physical contact wasn't going to stop him.

 

“Castiel, you're being very silly right now.” Dean spoke the words with affection, hot into Castiels ear.

 

It sent chills up his spine, even though the words hadn't been sexual or alluring in any fashion, the prospect of having Dean so close and using his full name made Castiel suck in a surprised breath.

 

Dean leaned back to look at Castiel and smiled lightly, looking over Castiels face as if trying to capture every detail, until his eyes landed on Castiels lips and he stayed there.

 

Castiel wasn't sure what to do in the situation, so he cleared his throat in an attempt to bring Dean back to recognition.

 

Dean blinked up at Cas and smiled broadly.

 

“Come on buddy, I'll show you, it's not that hard, you gotta feel the [music](http://hypster.com/playlists/user/readerconsumed?7108625) and just go with it!”

 

Dean hadn't waited for Castiels reply. Instead he pulled at the belt strap again and led Castiel through the crowd to the middle of the dance floor. Castiel was reluctant, but he felt that if he was with Dean it might not be so bad to give it a shot.

 

The music pulsed through the speakers that seemed way too close for Castiels liking, his ears ringing when the vocals took to some particularly high notes.

 

Dean had already begun to sway casually to the tune, mouthing the words and gesturing to Castiel.

 

“See? Easy.” He shouted over the music.

 

Castiel narrowed his eyes at the other man and the people around him, who also seemed to have no trouble with their movements.

 

It did seem easy enough, and he was quite certain he had enough “liquid courage” flowing through his system that he could at least give it a shot.

 

Castiel started to sway, moving slowly and trying to get the rhythm right as well as trying not to bump into the people around him that had seemed to get closer. He looked over at Dean who was now smiling smugly at him. Castiel smiled back despite himself and began to move with more rhythm, finding the beat intoxicating and the vocals less ear piercing and more relaxing. He closed his eyes and danced for the first time in years, allowing himself the pleasure of forgetting his stress in this moment. The words of the song echoing his state of mind.

 

_I'm fallin' to pieces_

 

Dean had moved closer to Castiel now, still smiling but closing his eyes and letting himself be lost to the music too. Castiel was smiling like a four year old on Christmas morning as he started to dance with more confidence, lightly grazing the people dancing around him, with no issues.

 

He was aware of a young girl next to him, that had been smiling at him while he had been dancing. Castiels face instantly started to feel hot as he realised he was being watched. The girl only giggled and leaned up to speak into his ear.

 

“You're a very good dancer.” She said leaning back and batting her long dark eyelashes at him, resting her hand on his arm lightly and moving her hips in time with the fast paced tune of the music.

 

Castiel laughed and thought the girl was being very kind in saying that, he must have looked very self-conscious about the issue to make her comment on it.

 

“Thank you.” He laughed over the music, shaking his head, half aware that the girl was still touching him and feeling a little uncertain about if he minded or not.

 

Dean had chosen this moment to move in next to the girl, leaning down to whisper into her ear, all the while smiling smugly while he spoke.

 

The girl frowned and looked up at him and then to Castiel, who seemed to mirror the confusion on the girls face. She smiled at Castiel as if suddenly realizing something and turned back to Dean nodding and whispering something back into his ear with a giggle. Dean held her hand and smiled at her before  the girl blushed a little and moved to dance off past Castiel, only looking back over her shoulder to throw Castiel a wink.

 

Castiel regarded Dean with curiosity at the exchange that had occurred between the two. The [music](http://hypster.com/playlists/user/readerconsumed?7108627) had shifted during the brief exchange, to a beat that Castiel actually thinks he has heard before.

 

Dean noticed Castiel looking at him and shrugged, smiling innocently.

 

“I wasn't sure if you were comfortable with her touching you.”  He stated casually.

 

Castiel just nodded, understanding why Dean would believe that and not finding any fault in the other mans move to look after Castiels best interests. He smiled back at Dean and began to sway again, picking up the new rhythm easily.

 

Castiels mind had started to get very foggy as they had been dancing. He knew that he had started to get drunk when they were at the bar, but he hadn't realised to what extent until he started dancing. The music had started to feel like it was almost flowing through him now, everything seeming dreamlike around him as he moved, unknown faces flying in and out of his line of vision and colours and lights blending into one another.

 

Castiel hadn't even noticed that Dean had moved closer to him, until he felt him placing his hand lightly on Castiels hip and pressing up against him from behind and leaning his chin on Castiels shoulder as if wanting to whisper in his ear. Castiel shivered at the warm breath he felt on his neck and smiled, leaning his head slightly sidewards to get closer to Deans lips.

 

Dean chuckled and Castiel could feel the movement travel through him.

 

“You don't seem to mind _me_ touching you.” Dean breathed into Castiels ear. The sensation was hot and Castiels head had started to spin, although he told himself it was from the alcohol.

 

“Perhaps I trust you.” Castiel said leaning his head up so that he could look at Dean.

 

Dean stared back at Castiel, his eyes a little wider, looking over Castiels face and landing on his lips as he had done earlier.

 

Castiel could feel Deans heartbeat against his back. It was fast and his breathing seemed erratic, Castiel frowned and was just about to ask if Dean was feeling alright, before he felt warm lips meet his own.

 

He was taken by surprise, his eyes going wide. He was contemplating breaking it off, but the mix of alcohol and toxic music only served against him, driving him forward, seeking out the comfort that Deans lips offered in his confusion, losing himself in the moment and realising how long it had been since he had even touched someone affectionately, let alone kissed them. Castiels own loneliness edging him on, he closed his eyes and gave into it.

 

The kiss grew deeper as Castiel pressed himself into Dean, running his hand up to Deans neck and curling his fingers in the other mans hair, greedily pulling him even further down into the kiss. Dean moaned softly into Castiels mouth, while parting the other mans lips with his tongue, meeting warmth  and breathed Castiel in as they kissed.

 

Deans grip on Castiels hip had grown stronger and he almost worried that he might be hurting him, although he would have been even more worried if he wasn't so damn turned on.

 

Castiel had surprised Dean by grabbing him by the neck and pushing himself back against Dean. Dean had also realised that Castiel was still moving in time with the music while they kissed, making his hips move tentatively against Deans front, making him gasp softly into Castiels mouth.

Castiel smiled against Deans lips at the reaction he had got out of him, making Dean certain that Castiel knew exactly what he was doing to him.

 

Damn sneaky bastard

 

Dean was so taken back by how forward Castiel was being, that he had to stop for a moment to make sure that he wasn't making it up, or having a really, really good dream, Dean stared lazily down at Castiel trying to catch his breath. Castiels eyes were still closed, their lips only a fragment apart from each other. Castiel opened his eyes slowly to stare up at Dean with a look of complete want, that made Deans breathing stutter.   

 

He was like a completely different person. Dean thought  as he tried to move in time with Cas as he swayed with music. Dean had initiated the kiss -something which he had thought had been a mistake on his part- but Castiel was definitely taking it further and Dean had not been prepared for it.

 

Castiel leaned his head back against Deans chest, disappointed that the kiss had ended, but completely satisfied with the way it had all gone. He hadn't realised that he had needed the contact until it had actually happened.

 

He moved against Dean and closed his eyes again as the two of them danced lazily against one another. When Castiel opened his eyes again, he spotted Charlie on the other end of the club at the bar, speaking with Castiels sister Anna. Castiel instantly felt a knot form in his stomach and his head was once again bombarded with the stress of his reality. The real world. A world where he was not allowed to get involved with men, a world his father had constantly drilled into him every time he noticed the way Castiel had regarded attractive men. This wasn’t allowed and the fear of his father –or anyone from his family for that matter- somehow finding out absolutely terrified him.

 

Castiel lifted his head off Dean, feeling ashamed of the way he had acted. He moved away from Dean and turned around to face the other man, with the shame noticeable on his face, mixing with regret and nausea as he tried to speak.

 

Dean couldn't place the expression on Castiels face, which was normal, but this time it wasn't due to the lack of emotion, but because there was so much emotion playing on Castiels face that it was hard to focus on one in particular. All Dean knew was that none of them were good and that made him anxious as he waited for Castiel to speak.

 

“I- I think I should leave now.” Castiel stuttered over the music and turned on his heel to push past the crowd, receiving some rather nasty looks while doing so.

 

Dean stared dumb founded as Castiel bolted.

 

It took Dean a few seconds as he stared at the spot where Castiel had just been dancing with him, until he finally looked up over the crowd to see where the other man had run off to, the alcohol wasn’t helping his confusion either, preventing him from forming any logical thoughts or reactions.

 

What the hell?

 

He frowned and tried to shake himself from the confusion that had suddenly overwhelmed him, while walking in the direction Castiel had just gone, picking up speed as he pushed his way through the oversexed clubbers and stepping on a few toes on his way through.

 

He saw Castiel in the distance saying something to Charlie and Anna before quickly making his way to the exit. Dean picked up speed again and ran to the exit. He walked through the double doors of the club and was hit with the frosty night air, his breath coming out like a cloud of smoke. He looked straight ahead and saw Castiel walking hurriedly into the parking lot, hugging his arms over his chest, obviously feeling the cold as he was making his way to the main road, probably to hail a taxi.

 

“Hey! Cas!” Dean called out jogging over to Castiel.

 

Castiel stopped and turned slowly, pressing his face into his hands and pulling them down slowly as if exhausted, as Dean stopped in front of him, breathing heavily.

 

“Cas, where are you going?” Dean breathed

 

“I'm going home Dean, I would say that was obvious.” Castiel answered blankly, resorting back to the expressionless facade he wore on campus.

 

“Ah, yeah I can see that, but why?” Dean asked frowning at Castiel “I thought we were going to at least share a cab or somethin'.”

 

“Dean-”

 

“Is it because I kissed you? Because you didn't have to kiss me back ya know.” Dean blurted out, interrupting Castiel.

 

“I mean it looked like you were enjoying it, hell it _felt_ like you enjoyed it?” Dean was rambling now, he was confused and light headed, he at least thought that the cold night air would at least be sobering, but he was wrong.

 

“There was nothing wrong with the kiss Dean, not in a physical sense anyway.” Castiel said staring at the road, trying to avoid eye contact with the other man.

 

Dean scrunched his face up at the comment.

 

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

 

“I shouldn't have allowed that to happen, I shouldn't have allowed any of this to happen, it would seem that I have made a mistake in coming here with you tonight.”

 

Dean widened his eyes, his eyebrows seeming to fly up to his hairline. He knew he had maybe crossed a line kissing Cas but for him to say that going out with Dean in general tonight had been a mistake stung a little.

But then he remembered how sheltered Castiel was. Maybe he hadn't actually been to a club before or really even gone out anywhere besides school and the library and how he had mentioned that his family disapproved of basically everything he did.

“Please don’t tell me this is because you’re worried about what your family will think.”

Dean lets his frustration show through his words. He had dealt with his own problems in this area a long time ago and it made him angry to think that Castiel as stubborn as he was actually gave a crap about what others thought.

 

“Dean.” Castiel sighed.

 

He wasn't feeling too great at the moment, the alcohol seeming to swirl inside of him, making him nauseous and unable to form the words he wanted to say, words that would probably be useful in helping to calm down the ever growing annoyance that was noticeable on Deans face.

 

“No, don't say my name like that, like I'm stupid and won’t be able to understand!”

 

“Dean, I just don't think it would be wise for us to-”

 

“Seriously?” Dean cut in shaking his head.

“ _Wise?_ You’re in college Cas, you don’t need to worry about that word for another couple of years”

 

Deans statement made less than no sense to Castiel and it wasn’t helping that he was starting to sway now, his vision getting clouded and it felt like something was alive and trying to worm it's way out of his stomach.

 

“Dean.” Castiel breathed out, trying to compose himself and trying to warn Dean that this conversation was probably not going to go very far.

 

Dean wasn't listening though, he was still caught up in the one-sided argument.

 

He felt like an idiot. Letting himself be caught up in a moment and actually thinking that Cas had wanted to kiss him. What if Castiel had just felt sorry for him? What if he was just making fun of him and the whole kiss was some sort of sick joke? What if the kiss hadn't actually been as good as Dean had thought? Maybe it wasn’t even about Cas’ family. Maybe he actually didn’t swing that way and Dean had basically just forced himself on someone.

 

Dean was so busy with his own thoughts, he hadn't even noticed that Castiel was now bent over, leaning both hands on his knees and breathing heavily.

 

The alcohol was making a comeback Castiel thought, trying to fight through the blurred vision and trying to see if he would be able to warn Dean again.

 

He opened his mouth and instantly regretted it.

 

His stomach lurched forward and into his chest. The alcohol burning its way up his throat, hotter than when it had gone down and forcing its way out onto the concrete just short of Deans shoes.

 

“Oh shit, Cas!”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dean helps grumpy Cas get home and we get a first look at Gabriel and Charlie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so I guess I'm carrying on with this!  
> thanks guys for your comments and kudos, I really, really appreciate it and hopefully I don't disappoint!
> 
> Not Beta read, so if you spot any issues please let me know so I can correct them :). 
> 
> warnings: Intoxication

It took some time and a lot of man handling on Deans part to eventually get Castiel into a cab.

The guy is grumpy and stubborn as it is, pair that with a rather bad run in with alcohol and Dean was starting to compare him to Sammy when someone has used all of his fancy pants shampoo; it was never Dean who used it of course. He would never use someone else’s hair care products and then spend the next few days after running his fingers through his hair just because it felt so damn _good_. Nope. Never.

Castiel is still trying to convince Dean that he’s alright when the cab driver asks where they would like to go.

“So stupid.”  Castiel grumbles curling in on himself next to the window, trying to suck in as much of the cold night air as possible.

Dean sighs and rubs his hand over his face. This night is really not turning out how he had expected.

“Ah, Cas where do you stay?”

Dean is just starting to realize that he doesn’t even know if Cas lives on campus or not.

 He had all but stalked the guy the last few days and he somehow managed to overlook what would be very helpful information right now. He had tried looking for Anna and Charlie inside but had come up short and they didn’t seem to be big fans of answering theirs phones either.

Castiel turns and throws Dean a rather nasty scowl before answering “Who wants t’know?”

Dean scowls back, because seriously? He really isn’t in the right state of mind himself right now and all he wants to do is go home and sleep off the nights rejection. But he can’t exactly do that until he’s helped the guy who turned him down get his grumpy butt home first.

“The Sugarplum Fairy.” Dean quips rolling his eyes. “Who the hell do you think Cas? I need to get you home, can you just give me an address?”

Castiels scowl deepens and he huffs and curls in on himself even more until his face is hidden under his arms and he grumbles something that Dean can’t hear.

The cab driver is starting to get impatient and Dean isn’t getting anything useful from Castiel. He considers just taking Castiel back to his dorm room, but quickly shuts his own idea down, not wanting to wake up and have to deal with a second round of rejection and awkwardness.

He reaches over to Castiel and starts digging in his pockets hoping that the guy at least had enough sense to bring his phone out with him. Luckily Castiel doesn’t seem to notice the intrusion and Dean finds the phone easily enough.

He stares at the contact list hoping that he either knows someone on it or that Cas is one of those people who adds a description next to all of his contacts.

 

No such luck apparently.

Dean sighs loudly and rubs at his tired eyes. Damn bed really sounds good right now.

“Cas I’m going to use your phone.” Dean says loudly while nudging Castiel who just lets out an annoyed groan and shuffles his face back up to the window sucking in deep breathes, probably trying to keep himself from getting sick again.

“I’m just going to dial someone who called you last okay?”

That seemed like the best option right now anyway, since Castiel isn’t being much help and the names of the last two people he spoke with seem fitting enough to probably be related.

Gabriel and Lucifer.

 _Lucifer_? Dean frowns at the name. Maybe it’s some sort of joke between Castiel and one of his friends? Because who the hell names their kid _Lucifer_?

“Cas, who can I call out of these two: Gabriel or Lucifer?” Dean asks nudging lightly at Castiel, careful not to make him sick again.

Castiels eyes snap open and he’s reaching for the phone in a panic, but Dean quickly pulls it out of his reach and stares incredulously at him.

“What the hell Cas?” Dean growls while trying to push Castiel back down on the seat.

“Please don’ call Luci, please no, don’ bother him please.” Castiel is muttering incoherently and his eyes are wide with worry. “He’ll be so angry with me, don’ do that!”

Dean raises his eyebrows and puts his hands on Castiels shoulders willing him to calm down.

“Alright Cas, alright, I won’t.” Dean repeats until Castiel seems to have calmed down and is taking in even breaths again and sinks back down to the seat, resting his head back in his arms and closing his eyes warily.

“Geez Cas, all you had so say was no.” Dean says running his hand up and down Castiels arm trying to be soothing but it’s seems too strained so he stops and turns his attention back to the phone.

“Gabriel it is then.” He says and presses the dial button.

Castiel lets out a pained moan in response but he isn’t freaking out like before so Dean takes that as a good thing. It’s also at this point that Dean remembers Castiel mentioning his brother earlier and he’s almost certain his name was Gabriel.

The phone rings a couple of times before a voice too cheery for the hour answers.

“Hey Little Bro! What the heck are you doing up so late? Wasn’t your bedtime like seven hours ago?” Gabriel chuckles, obviously one of those people that finds himself funny.

“Ah, hey, this is Dean, Cas’… friend.” Dean stumbles over the last word wondering if they are even that much right now.

There’s a moment of scuffling on the other end of the line and a loud crash before Gabriel speaks again.

“Is he alright? What happened?” Gabriel babbles.

“He’s fine, he ah, he’s just had a few too many and either can’t or won’t tell me where the hell he lives.”

Dean is starting to drift a little, he just hopes that he can manage to get an address out of this guy before that happens because he doubts that the cab driver is going to be cool with the both of them sleeping in his cab for the night.

He’s jolted out of his sleep haze by a loud burst of laughter from Gabriel on the other end of the line.

“No way! Cassie is drunk? My Cassie? Average height, dark brown hair, permanent stick up his butt Cassie?”

Dean lets Gabriel finish laughing before he tries to reply “Yeah, well anyway, I have no idea where he lives, can you give me an address?”

“He told me he was going to study at the library tonight.” Gabriel comments sounding more proud than upset.

“ I don’t know anything about that, but he’s a mess right now, so that address please?” Dean is struggling to keep his thoughts coherent again as he closes his eyes and leans his forehead on the cold window. This Gabriel guy is really testing his patience.

“Yeah, yeah okay, geez Cassie is obviously not the only one hanging right now.”

Dean can’t find the energy to argue so he just grunts and hopes that Gabriel is going to let up and give him something useful. 

“Well Cassie actually lives with me, but I’m not at home right now, you can go there so long though, I shouldn’t take too long here and Cassie should have his key on him somewhere.”

Dean can’t find the energy to relay the address Gabriel gives him back to cab driver so instead he stumbles to lean over the driver’s seat and shoves the phone to the cabbies ear so he and Gabriel can sort everything out.

He watches as the driver speaks into the phone and nods his understanding before hanging up and throwing the phone onto the back seat almost hitting Dean in the face.

“Dude.” Dean mumbles in protest as he scrambles for the phone.

After that, the drive is pretty much all a blur. He tries to stay awake but ends up slipping in and out of consciousness more times than he cares to count. He doesn’t even protest when Castiel shifts along the seat to rest his head on Deans leg. He knows he needs to cut off the physical contact as soon as possible to save himself further disappointment when the alcohol in Castiels system finally wears off, but he finds himself not caring as much about that as he should right now.

Castiel looks really good when he’s sleeping. His eyebrows are still pinched together in a frown but he looks peaceful and Dean doesn’t want to be the one to ruin that.

His sentiments are short lived however when the cab comes to a stop and he realizes he needs to get Castiel out of the car and into the house. But first he needs to find the guys keys.

Dammit all this is definitely the night where he becomes serious about never drinking again.

He squints down at Castiel and swears silently at having to dig in the guys pants again. Dean shifts trying to angle himself better to be able to reach Castiels pockets without disturbing him.

He’s almost got his hands on the keys when the door on the opposite side of the cab flies open and the cold night air bursts into the small space giving Dean instant goose flesh. He stares in the direction of the door and tries to give whoever it is as threatening a look as he can.

“Wow, okay I know that’s something Cassie definitely needs in his life, but don’t you think it would be better if he were awake for it?”

 Thank God for small (and very loud) mercies Dean thinks as he removes his hands from Castiels pockets and slouches back on the seat.

Gabriel shuffles on to the backseat and starts to shake Castiel lightly while chuckling under his breath.

“Baby bro I never expected this from you, you have no idea how proud I am right now.”

Castiel groans and starts crawling away from Gabriel and further on to Deans lap.

“Nooo.”  Castiel continues to groan while shoving Gabriels hands away, this however only serves to amuse Gabriel even further.

“Stop that Cassie, I need to get you inside and maybe get some water in you or something and then you can go to sleep in your bed, doesn’t that sound nice?” Gabriels coos as he manages to lift and drag Castiel off of Dean and closer to the door.

“Thanks.. ah Dean was it?”

Dean hums his recognition and wills the world to stop spinning before he ends up getting sick on either himself or Cas.

“It would probably be better if you just crashed on our couch or something, that way I don’t have to worry about you passing out in a ditch somewhere.”

That gets Deans attention and he grumbles out his protest immediately.

There was no way in hell he was going to spend the night at Cas’ place. How pathetic would that look? And he doubted that Cas would be too happy about the guy he had turned down showing up on his couch in the morning. He couldn’t think of a more awkward situation and he wasn’t going to subject either of them to that if he could help it.

“Jus’ wanna go home.” He moans louder hoping Gabriel will just leave him be.

“Yeah, I heard you the first one hundred times sunshine.” Gabriel sighs as he manages to get Castiel all the way out of the cab and half standing.

“And home would be where exactly?”

“Ma dorm.”

He can hear Gabriel talking the cab driver, hopefully telling him where to go.

“Okay so this pleasant gentleman is going to take you back to campus, I’ve already paid him and he’s agreed to make sure you at least make it to your building.”

Dean nods curtly staring at Gabriel with half hooded eye lids as he leans on the door.

“And thanks for showing Cassie a good time, he really does need it.” Gabriel continues sincerely before he closes the door and drags Castiel toward the house.

 

* * *

 

Dean isn’t entirely sure how in the hell he actually managed to get to his dorm room last night. He’s even more perplexed at the fact that he seemed to have made himself a bowl of raman and a cup of coffee without breaking the kitchen, which leaves him feeling pretty impressed with himself.

He had woken up with the mother of all headaches and a constant lurching feeling in the pit of his stomach that threatened an up-chuck moment but never actually delivered on it. He knows he should have tried to get sick last night, as gross as that is, it would have made today a lot easier on him.

He can’t get up the courage to eat anything just yet and settles for a hot cup of coffee and crawls straight back into bed and checks his phone.

10 new notifications.

More than half were phone calls from Charlie. He decides that it’s probably best that he give her a call and let her know that he’s fine and check if she got back safely too. He presses the call button and waits through a couple of rings before Charlie eventually answers.

“What the heck is wrong with you Winchester?” Charlie immediately lashes out a bit too loudly for Deans liking right now.

“Do you have any idea how worried I’ve been? I must have called you about twelve times and you don’t answer that stupid phone of yours. I don’t even know why you have a phone if you’re not going to answer it!”

Dean sips his coffee as he waits for Charlie to finish her rant.

“Are you done? Can I talk now?”

There’s no answer from Charlie and Dean takes that as his queue.

“Firstly, you only called six times, not twelve, don’t be dramatic, and secondly, I called _you_ last night too and you never answered either, so you don’t get to be mad at me.”

Dean sits back and sips at his coffee again, satisfied with himself and waits for the round of excuses he’s used to hearing from Charlie.

“Well _you_ didn’t have Anna Milton freaking out over where her baby brother was and whether he was even okay or not! She hasn’t exactly heard great things about you Dean”

Dean flinches and his coffee goes down like a lump of coal as he swallows.

He had almost forgotten about Cas.

“Shit.” He sighs and sets his coffee down, no longer trusting his ability to stomach even that now.

“Shit is right Winchester. You’re lucky I have Cas’ number and he actually _answers,_ even if he wasn’t very coherent.”

So Charlie had spoken to Cas? Dean starts to wonder if Cas had said anything to her about what had happened last night. He knows Charlies not stupid and she could probably figure it out all on her own, but he would rather her hear it from him first so that he could explain himself.

“Di- did he, ah say anything about last night?” Deans starting to feel light headed, it’s probably just the aftermath of the crazy amount of alcohol he consumed last night, but he’s starting to believe it’s the work of a certain blue eyed grump.

“Well, lets see here, he mentioned something about drinking copious amounts of alcohol and then he said you guys danced and then something about a parking lot.”

Dean breathes a sigh of relief. Well at least he hadn’t mentioned the kiss.

“Oh alright, well I-.”

“Oh wait, there was something else!” Charlie cuts him off.  “Now what was it? Oh yes. YOU FUCKING KISSED HIM!”

That’s it. Game over.

Dean huffs and throws the phone to the bottom of the bed so he can shove his head in hands and wallow in embarrassment while Charlie carries on yelling on the other end of the line.

 He must sit like that for at least five minutes before he decides to retrieve the phone again. Charlie hasn’t even noticed that he hasn’t been part of the conversation for the last few minutes.

“And another thing, if you coaxed that innocent angel into it-.”

Dean can’t contain his laughter at that. “Coax him into it? Believe me Charlie I didn’t need to.”

If anyone had done the coaxing, it was definitely Cas; hand fisted in Deans hair and grinding his hips like a horny teenager.

“Have you called him?”

“No.” Dean snorts at the idea.

“You should totally call him!” Charlie is starting to sound way too excited about this whole situation.

“I’m the ‘bad influence’ remember? I doubt he wants to get any more involved with me. In fact I know he doesn’t because he made that very clear last night.”

 He can’t help the acid that escapes through his words, but he didn’t have time for this type of stress in his life right now and he just wills everyone to forget all about it.

“That’s not surprising.” Charlie states casually.

Dean raises his eyebrows at that. “Uhm, excuse me?”

“Oh! No not because of you, but his family. They’re kind of a bunch of manipulative assholes that haven’t been able to evolve with the times. Well that’s what Anna tells me anyway.”

Dean nods even though Charlie can’t see him. He had figured that that was the case, but that doesn’t make him feel any better about the whole situation.

“All the more reason not to get involved then.”

“Dean-.” Charlie starts, obviously working her way up to another lecture, but Dean quickly cuts her off.

“Listen I gotta go, I’ll see you in class tomorrow.”

“You know you can’t be an ass and avoid him on campus right?”

Of course he could. He’s the king of avoidance! Dean Winchester isn’t exactly known for his commitment anyway.

“Bye Charlie.” He says ignoring her last comment and drops the call.

He flops back down onto his pillow and throws his arm over his eyes.

This wasn’t going to work for him. Dean Winchester doesn’t know rejection unless he’s the one doing the rejecting, there was only one thing that was going to make him feel better and hopefully get him to forget last night.

He picks up his phone and scrolls through his contacts list until he finds one he’s satisfied with and presses the call button. It only has to ring twice.

“Dean! Well this is a surprise.” The female voice sounds breathy almost like she had run to answer the phone.

"Hey Babe. Yeah I know it's been a while, how about you come over and I make it up to you?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> feel free to comment guys, it really helps :).


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Castiels day after the big night. We also get a first glance at Lucifer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alrighty guys so moving along!  
> This chapter is slightly shorter, sorry about that, it's a bit of a crazy week and it just felt right to end it where I did...
> 
> no warnings for this chapter :). 
> 
> If there are any problems I may not have spotted please let me know.

Castiel can’t help it wonder why on earth anyone would want to drink to the point of making themselves sick. His experience had been a fluke but something he is certain he will never allow to happen again. He may never have another drop as long as he lives. Which is exactly what he had told Gabriel as soon as he had found the will to wake up at about three that afternoon.

“Aw Cassie don’t be that way, you just need to find your limit and you’ll be drinking with the big boys in no time!” Gabriel had assured him a little too enthusiastically.

Castiel pulled up his face in response. He understood that Gabriel thought he needed to get out more and have more ‘fun’, but was he really going to encourage his younger brother to start drinking in order to do that?

“I’ll never understand you Gabriel.” Castiel sighs and goes back to staring at the large amount of food Gabriel had prepared for him, claiming it was the “meal to end all hangovers” and perhaps it would have been if Castiel was brave enough to try any of it. So far he hasn’t even managed to move himself any further than the couch for the past two hours.

”You don’t have to understand me Cassie, you just have to put up with me.” Gabriel says throwing Castiel a dramatic wink.

Castiel smiles weakly back at his brother. He’s thankful that he had a ‘pro’ (Gabriels’ description) to look after him last night and this morning, he’s almost certain that he would have died if he had had one more drink last night, he definitely feels like death today.

“By the way, did you find out if your friend made it back okay?” Gabriel is trying to act nonchalant when he asks the question but Castiel can see his lips quirk up slightly.

He looks away from Gabriel and can feel his face starting to get warm and he just knows that Gabriel is going to notice.

“I-I haven’t had the chance.” He replies almost inaudibly.

That makes Gabriel frown and tilt his head slightly, something he’s noticed himself and other members of his family do often when they are confused or contemplative.

“Well, you should probably just check in, he didn’t look very good last night when he left.”

Castiels feels the warmth spread from his face and onto his neck. “I don’t have his number.”

“So you partied with the guy the whole night and caught a cab back home with him but you don’t have his number?” Gabriel asks with a raised eyebrow and a tone that suggests he doesn’t believe him.

“I’m not lying Gabriel, we aren’t exactly close.” Castiel says rubbing his hands over his face in exasperation. “Last night was the first time I’ve ever done anything with him.”

Gabriel huffs out a short laugh and waggles his eyebrows “And what did you do Cassie?”

“You know that’s not what I mean Gabriel.” Castiel groans and wishes Gabriel would find other ways to occupy his time other than sitting here and tormenting him.

Gabriel continues to laugh but holds his hands up in surrender.

”Alright, alright, I’m just making sure my little brother had a good time that’s all.”

Castiel musters up the energy for a dramatic eye roll and decides to focus his attention on trying out Gabriels ‘meal to end all hangovers’. Maybe if he’s eating he won’t have to be involved in anymore conversation. Although nothing has ever stopped Gabriel from carrying the conversation all on his own before

Castiel takes a big bite out of what seems to be a cream cheese bagel only it seems to be greasier than normal.

“Lucifer is coming over later, for dinner.” Gabriel says with a straight face.

Castiel stops chewing and stares back at Gabriel waiting for the rest.

“I’m just letting you know in case you had plans or wanted to make some.”

Gabriels’ hinting isn’t very subtle and Castiel had caught on as soon as he had mentioned that Lucifer was coming over. He’s giving Castiel the opportunity to make plans in order not to be there for dinner, in order not to have to be around Lucifer for longer than he needs to.

“Is it about dad?” Castiel basically whispers.

Gabriels expression turns soft and he gives Castiel a small smile. “No Cassie, dad is fine, same old, same old.”

“Then it’s about me.” Castiel gets to the point quickly, he doesn’t want details, he can figure those out easily enough, he just needs to know what the conversation is going to be centered around.

Gabriels presses his lips in a firm line and doesn’t answer straight away, which is answer enough for Castiel.

“I’ll make plans.” Castiel says taking another bite of his ‘bagel’

“It’s nothing serious Cassie, just the usual, I just figured you’d rather be out getting it on with some hunk in plaid than hanging out with your boring big brothers.”

“For the last time Gabriel-.” Castiel starts, ready to work himself into another lecture, but Gabriel cuts him off before he can even get that far.

“Oh lighten up Cassie! Go make your plans, Lucifer will probably be here at seven.”

Castiel throws one last scowl in Gabriels direction before he crawls slowly off of the couch, taking the plate of food with him. He’s still unsteady on his feet and the feeling of the alcohol sitting somewhere behind his eyes or pooling in his brain is taking longer than he thought to go away.

He plops down on the bed and puts the plate on the side table and reaches for his phone. It would be easiest to hide out in the library for a couple of hours until Lucifer left but he doesn’t feel up to doing any work today and he doesn’t feel the urge to just sit around the library, even if he does have free range of reading material, he’s just not quite sure he’ll be able to concentrate much on any of it.

He has a few messages from Charlie and Anna asking how he is. He can vaguely remember having a conversation with Charlie over the phone last night, but he’s not sure of what they were talking about. He decides that hanging out with Charlie would probably be his best option and he types out a short message to her.

**Castiel: Is it alright if I come to your dorm tonight?**

It takes a few minutes before the reply pings through.

**Charlie: IT’S ALIVE! You had me worried for a second there Novak!**

Castiel rolls his eyes as another message comes through.

**Charlie: You know you can come over whenever. But there are going to be a few people here tonight.**

**Charlie: You ok with that?**

Castiel groans at the mention of having to deal with people and he’s probably going to have to make polite conversation, which he would be fine with if he just knew what to talk about.

**Castiel: If I come and decide after a few minutes it’s not okay, will you tell them to leave?**

**Charlie: No.**

**Castiel: Are they at least decent? I’ve noticed that some of your friends tend to be a bit unusual.**

**Charlie: You know you’re one them right?**

Castiel frowns down at his phone and debates whether he should warrant that with a response.

**Charlie: Are you going to put on your big girl panties and come over?? We can make it a sleep over! :D.**

Castiel mulls over the options he has, which are few to none at this point. Either he goes to the library and sits there for who knows how long, doing who knows what, or he goes to Charlies and makes polite yet strained conversation with her friends for a while until they either leave or fall asleep, or he could stay at home and make polite yet strained conversation with Lucifer.

That last option makes him cringe so he doesn’t even acknowledge it as an option for too long.

**Castiel: I just need to pack and then I’ll leave.**

**Charlie: YAY! I promise I’ll sorta try to get everyone to behave…**

Castiel quirks a small smile at his phone, he knows Charlie isn’t one for good behavior and if anything, she will probably encourage the others. Especially if Castiel is there.

Castiel gets to work on packing his bag. Only the essentials, he doesn’t plan on staying at Charlies for more than one night and he would rather not carry around more than a backpack to his classes the next day.

He’s just tossing his bag over his shoulder when Gabriel calls him from the living room.

“Cassie can you come say hello to Luci before you leave?”

Castiel stops short and stares at the open door.

He had obviously taken a lot longer than he thought he would getting ready, or Lucifer was just early. Dammit. He grabs his phone and checks the time. It’s only six thirty, so Lucifer was definitely early.

He stands in door frame for a few more minutes, trying to work himself up to going any further. He had been told before that it’s silly to be intimidated by your own family, but he couldn’t help how he reacted in these situations. It wasn’t just Lucifer, Castiel had issues communicating with most people in his family, the only exception being Gabriel. Anna held a special place in Castiels heart too, but that didn’t mean he found her any easier to talk to.

He takes a deep breath and walks slowly into the hallway and making his way to the living room. He can hear the low grumbles of Gabriel and Lucifer talking before he gets to the room.

“If it’s going to be a problem somewhere down the line, it would be better if you could let me know now.”

Gabriel sounds anxious and somewhat angry. Castiel has hardly ever heard him like this before. Usually he’s pretty much carefree and happy go lucky, right now he sounds like a completely different person and it gives Castiel an unsettled feeling in the pit of his stomach.

He shuffles with his bag and clears his throat before he walks into the room, giving his brothers the opportunity to stop talking. He rounds the corner and finds Gabriel and Lucifer sitting opposite each other. Gabriel is leaning forward, his elbows leaning on his legs and his hands clasped firmly together in front of him and Lucifer is lounging as casually as always.

He looks even more arrogant than usual today, still in his dress suit for work but there isn’t any misconception of formality with the way he’s sitting; Arms resting on the back of the couch and legs placed far apart in front of him as if he was lounging on a deck chair on some remote island only he could afford to go to.

“Castiel! Well it’s certainly a surprise to see you.” Lucifer drones out, his lips quirking up in a lazy smile.

Castiel glances down at his feet as he speaks, his voice is low when he addresses Lucifer.

“Hello Lucifer.”

“I understand you’re leaving for the night?” Lucifer gets straight to the point as usual, lazy smile still in place and eyebrows raised in feigned surprise.

“Yes, sorry I can’t stay.” Castiel answers, shifting his gaze from his shoes to look at Lucifer with a less than apologetic expression.

“It’s really a shame isn’t it? I always seem to have the worst timing when it comes to visiting.”

Lucifer is still smiling, but his eyes have gone harder, more accusing. He’s not stupid, Castiel is certain his brother knows that he’s avoiding him. But Lucifer is someone who would rather hint at something than tell you outright. That way he can keep you wondering and stressed out about what he’s really thinking. He likes to play games with people, which is exactly why he is so successful.

“Perhaps next time.” Castiel says forcing a small smile onto his face.

They stare at each other for a few more seconds before Gabriel butts in.

“Well then!” Gabriel says loudly, making Castiel flinch and shift his gaze from Lucifer to him. Lucifer remains the same and seems unfazed by the outburst, keeping his expression calm and still fixed on Castiel.

“I’m sure you’re running late by now little bro, you should probably get going!” Gabriel is being overly enthusiastic and smiling way too brightly for the tension that is so clear in the room. Castiel starts to wonder how often Gabriel plays up the jokey persona to ease tension.

“Uhm, yes, yes I am running a bit late.” Castiel stammers and closes his fingers around his backpack strap tightly. “I’ll see you tomorrow Gabriel.” He smiles at Gabriel, and gives him an appreciative look before he glances back at the other couch.

“Lucifer.” He says with a stiff nod and shuffles quickly out the door.

 

Once he’s out the door, he takes a long deep breath to calm himself before he starts the five minute walk to the bus stop. Once he’s on the bus, he tries to let his mind wander anywhere and everywhere besides his family. School work, Charlie, last night…

Castiels face starts to heat up again as he thinks about the events of last night. He can’t seem to remember much after the parking lot, however he doubts any of it is as important or as embarrassing as what happened inside the club.

He groans and bumps his head against the window, wondering if he could possibly knock the embarrassment out. He hadn’t intended to kiss Dean. Well that’s not what he had intended at the beginning of the night anyway, but the more they had spoken and the more Dean had explained about himself, the more Castiel had started to really like him. He was incredibly easy to talk to, often leading the conversation and filling Castiels silent and uncertain moments with bad jokes and random facts, which Castiel found both entertaining and endearing.

He had probably ruined it though, kissing him like that. Well technically Dean had been the one to kiss first, but it wasn’t fair of Castiel to lead him on if he wasn’t entirely sure of his own intentions. It’s not like he had never been kissed before, because he had, a few times actually, but nothing had ever gone further than that, not just in a physical sense, but in any sense, which had been a bit disconcerting the first few times it had happened and then he got over it.

And then he stopped trying at all. He didn’t go out, because he never felt like dealing with people even on good days, so he never met anyone new and when he did meet people, they never turned out to be what he had originally thought. One constant in life, he’s realized is that people are very good at being disappointing.

He hadn’t even really had friends until he got to college and found Charlie, some abnormal second year that decided he was somehow worth her time and friendship. He was thankful for Charlie, especially now, but he knew she was going to have a few words for him about last night.

When the bus finally pulls up at the stop, Castiel has managed to work himself into a self-pitying hole and almost misses his stop completely because he’s so lost in his own head. He gets off the bus and walks slowly towards Charlies building, not even looking up from the ground as he lets his mind continue to wonder off to wherever it feels like.

He doesn’t notice that someone is calling him until a hand is on his shoulder urging him to take notice. The unexpected contact startles him and he lets out a high pitched yelp and drops his backpack as he turns around to face the person.

“Dude, chill.” Dean laughs as he bends down to pick up the back pack and hands it back over to Castiel with a warm smile.

Castiel tries to search his face for any animosity about last night or any sign at all that the man may harbor ill feelings as he slowly takes the bag from Dean, but he doesn’t find any.

“Dean, you look… well.” Castiel curses himself internally for sounding like such a fool. Of course he looked well. In fact he looked much better than that. As if the man could look anything but good.

Castiels thought pattern is interrupted when Dean lets out a short, huffed laugh.

“Believe me I’m not, I just know how to make a bad situation look mildly presentable.” Dean says smiling wider and winking at Castiel.

“It’s something I learnt from my drunken teenage years, you never want the teachers knowing what you’ve been up to the previous night and telling your parents y’know?” Dean shrugs and rubs at the back of his neck when Castiel just nods.

“Not really.” Castiel replies bluntly after a few seconds, realizing he should probably say _something._

To say that he was confused by Deans casual attitude would be an understatement. Was it a case of Dean not caring about what happened last night or just not remembering any of it at all?

“Oh yeah, you don’t really… do that sort of thing right?” Deans staring back at Castiel with a raised eyebrow, as if he is actually expecting an answer to what seemed, to Castiel, to be a rhetorical question.

Castiel just smiles politely. Dean was obviously searching for some hidden meaning in their conversation too, the way he had phrased his last question and the way he was looking at Castiel now, made him certain that Dean remembered what had happened last night and he was trying to make a snide off-handed comment without actually making the comment outright.

“No.” Castiel answers, still smiling. He knew what Dean was getting at and even if he had felt like apologizing before, it wasn’t going to happen now.

Dean nods and smiles back brightly, but Castiel is starting to realise that this smile is not the same as the one he had seen last night. It seemed too polite and possibly forced.

“Anyway, I take it, you’re also going up to Charlies place?” Dean carries on just as casually as before, motioning for Castiel to walk with him.

Castiel follows Deans lead and they make their way up the buildings front stairs.

“Yes, she mentioned a few people were going to be coming over.” Castiel says softly, wishing he knew why his voice was suddenly retreating.

“The only other person I know coming is Ash, guy’s crazy but he’s awesome, the rest are Charlies’ class friends or some shit.” Dean shrugs and holds the door open for Castiel to walk through.

They walk the rest of the way in silence. Castiel is used to conversation lulls, so he’s surprised when he starts to feel an uncomfortable twist in his stomach when Dean doesn’t automatically pick up the conversation as he had done the night before.

They stop outside of Charlies door a few minutes later and Dean knocks out a rhythm on the door until it flies open and Charlie is standing there looking exasperated at Dean.

“That’s really annoying.” She sighs, but her face lights up immediately when she sees Castiel standing awkwardly in the background.

“Cas! Wow, okay, you actually came.” Charlie moves past Dean to get Castiel in an enthusiastic hug, not before throwing what seems to be a pretty hard punch to Deans left arm though.

“Ow! Dammit Charlie I’m sensitive.” Dean says in mock offense and he pouts dramatically.

Charlie just laughs and ruffles Castiels hair before moving to Dean and patting his cheek “Oh you poor baby.”

Castiel had always found it interesting to see how differently Charlie treated him in comparison to all her other friends. She wasn’t as gentle with the others as she was with him, it’s as if she thought she was somehow going to scare him off. He was both grateful for it and ever so slightly offended by it.

“Charlie get your ass back in here and tell me where you’ve hidden all the damn chocolate!” A loud female voice screams from somewhere inside the room.

Charlie just rolls her eyes and walks back into the room yelling her reply “There’s a reason I hide it! Don’t you dare touch my chocolate bitch!”

Dean and Castiel share a wary glance before Dean smiles and gestures to the room. “After you.”

Castiel looks skeptically between Dean and the dorm room before sighing and walking in.

It was going to be an interesting night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The 4th chapter may take some time as I am busy trying to update two fics at the moment. The other one is my first priority as this one was not intentionally supposed to be a whole fic. But I WILL still be carrying on with this story.   
> Thanks guys! :D.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Castiel spends the night with a new group of friends and the conversations turn personal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay this chapter is a liiittle bit longer than I thought it would be. (Also a bit later.. sorry about that)  
> But it was pretty fun writing it :D.

Charlie had somehow managed to convince someone somewhere along the line to allow her to have a dorm room all to herself. She had told Castiel that most dorms were shared but she was good at getting what she wanted from the “simpletons that ran the school.” Charlie had also managed to get the other bed removed from the room and a small two-seated couch put in its place, along with an arm chair squished up right next to it and a hideous shag carpet that Charlie had bought on the basis that it “reminded her of a Wookiee.”

She had even set up a small television and gaming system in front of the couch that Castiel had spent hours watching her play on while he was studying or doing assignments. Well _trying_ to study and do assignments anyway, it was always fairly hard to concentrate when Charlie was screaming and cursing at the other players. The dorm also contains a very tiny open plan kitchenette and a small bathroom that houses hardly enough space for the shower and the toilet let alone a bathtub.

Castiel walks into the room and almost walks into who he assumes is the owner of the voice he had heard outside.

“Woah, slow down there handsome.” The girl drawls out, placing her hand on Castiels arm, making him instantly tense up.

“Meg if you could control your hormones for just two seconds that would be great.” Dean sighs at the girl as he walks past both of them shaking his head and heading straight for the couch.

“Well look who’s jealous he’s not the center of attention.” Meg replies smiling coyly at Dean, before turning her attention back to Castiel and looking at him curiously.

He takes the chance to observe her a little more. His first thought is that she’s very pretty. Her long brown hair falling past her shoulders in waves and matching with her dark eyes. Her skin is very pale and contrasts beautifully with her eyes and hair. His second thought is that she had instantly seemed intimidating to him, much like how Dean intimidates him, but it was also different. Something about her seemed off… maybe it was the predatory way she was looking at him, or maybe he was overthinking things as usual and he was just nervous meeting someone new.

“You’ve already heard my name.” Meg says suddenly, breaking away from her obvious assessment of him. “You got one?

Castiel feels suddenly taken aback and a little embarrassed by his delayed reaction in introducing himself. He stutters a little bit while he tries to find his words again. “Ah-.”

“You’re not a mute are you?” Meg asks frowning at him

 Out of the corner of his eye he can see Dean is finding it very amusing and is trying to hide his smile.

“No. I’m sorry. My name is Castiel.” He replies curtly, feeling his face heat up a little.

Meg snorts and takes her hand off of Castiels arm and he instantly relaxes.

“Yeah, sure.” Meg says rolling her eyes. “Seriously what’s your name?”

Castiel frowns down at her and feels slightly offended by her reaction to his name. Once again he can see Dean out of the corner of his eye, trying to suppress his laughter,

“That is my name.” Castiel states impatiently.

Meg raises her eyebrows and mouths a silent “Oh”.

“Charlie what is it with you and having friends with weird ass names?” Meg yells in Charlies direction, which is currently in the kitchen probably eating all the snacks.

Charlie doesn’t answer but Castiel can hear her giggle.

“You ever met Balthazar?” Meg asks him expectantly.

Castiel frowns and shakes his head slowly.

“Well he’s also another one of our friends, he’ll probably be coming over tonight too, and as you heard, he also has a dramatic name like you.” Meg says rolling her eyes and moving to plop down on the couch next to Dean, who shifts away from her slightly.

Castiel walks forward slowly trying to figure out where would be the best place for him to sit. “They are biblical names.” He says while he looks around at all his options.

There aren’t many. Basically just the armchair (Next to Meg), the bed or the floor. He’s definitely not sitting on the floor and he doesn’t want to seem rude by sitting on the bed away from everyone.

“I have not heard of many other people with a name like mine.” Castiel continues to mutter as he gives in and walks over to the armchair and sits down. “Well none, to be precise.”

Meg smiles slowly and moves closer to Castiel and leans on both arm rests between them, edging her hand as close to Castiel as possible. “Well aren’t you special?” She says with a smirk.

Dean sighs loudly next to her and Castiel looks at him in time to catch his dramatic eye roll.

“You got somethin’ say Winchester?” Megs says turning around quickly and poking Dean in the arm.

Dean looks up at her with faux innocence. “Of course not Meg. You know I never have anything to say when it comes to your obvious slutty tendencies.”

Megs mouth falls open and she smacks Dean on the arm. Castiel flinches as she does it and wonders if all this hostility is supposed to be normal between them.

“Charlie! You stop eating all the chips and get your butt over here and deal with this asshole.”

Charlie saunters into the room with a bag of chips in her hands and a bored expression. “Meg. Chill. Dean stop being… well you.” Charlie scolds playful through a mouth full of chips.

“You’re making poor Castiel uncomfortable.” Charlie continues as she makes her way to Castiel and sits down quickly in his lap.

He’s surprised at first, mostly by the unexpected weight, but he doesn’t really mind. He trusts Charlie and he knows for certain she’s not going to do anything to make him uncomfortable. Knowing all of this however does not stop him from glaring up at her and her loud chip crunching.

“Yes?” Charlie asks, smiling at him innocently.

Castiel can’t help smile lightly back at her as he shakes his head.  

“Incorrigible.” He mutters, still smiling.

“No fair! I wanna sit on the cuties lap too!” Meg whines and leans over to tickle Charlies bare feet.

Charlie squeals and tries to shove Meg away while trying not to hurt Castiel at the same time.

He’s not really sure if he should be helping someone or not, so Castiel tries to sit as far back in his chair as possible and hopefully he won’t have to get involved any further.

 Charlie is still squealing and laughing shrilly when Dean gets up quickly from the couch and grabs Meg from behind and pulls her back on to him as he falls to the couch. “Quick Charlie get her!” He yells as Meg struggles and throws weak smacks to his arms.

Charlie moves from Castiels lap and jumps on Meg to take her revenge. Meg kicks and thrashes with tears rolling down her cheeks but Charlie is relentless though and doesn’t give in. Castiel sits back and watches the three of them with amused curiosity. He’s just about to decline Charlies constant nagging for him to help out when the door swings open.

“I leave you people alone together for two seconds and you’re already killing each other!”

Castiel turns towards the door and spots a tall, blonde haired guy standing in the door way with his arms spread wide and a charming smile plastered on his face.

“Oh yeah Balt, cause you’re the glue that holds this group together.” Charlie says rolling her eyes and getting up to hug the guy.

“You know it sweatheart.” He chuckles while hugging Charlie.

He throws a confused look in Castiels direction over Charlies shoulder and slowly moves out of the hug. “Well, who’s this then?” He says smiling brightly and walking over to Castiel with his hand extended.

Castiel gets up clumsily and takes the outstretched hand in a firm grip. “Castiel.” He says shortly.

The guys eyes travel up and down Castiels body before landing back on his face. “Balthazar. Nice to meet you. Love the name by the way.” He continues and winks at Castiel.

Castiel feels his cheeks heat up and he smiles shyly and lets go of Balthazars hand. He’s not sure what was causing him to blush but he’s pretty certain it’s Balthazars accent. Everything just sounded way better in a British accent.

The night wears on at a fairly regular pace. Charlie and Dean end up making burgers on Charlies’ toasted sandwich machine and they actually tasted pretty good considering the two hadn’t used traditional cooking methods.

They had drank a little. It took a lot of convincing to get Castiel to have a beer, for obvious reasons, but he had decided to go with it, knowing he would be fine if he just kept it light. He had noticed that everyone else wasn’t sticking to that rule and even Dean whom he had assumed would have still been recovering from the previous night had worked his way up to a few drinks.

He had learned that Balthazar was gay, which wasn’t entirely surprising, since he had kind of sensed it anyway. Usually he wasn’t very good at spotting such things, so he was pretty impressed with himself when Balthazars’ ex-boyfriend had come up in conversation.

They spoke about nonsense, mostly movies and music. Dean made a few disdainful comments about the music Meg had playing in the room. Castiel didn’t mind the music. In fact he actually felt that he rather liked it. He had gotten a pained moan from Dean when he had said so and a triumphant smile from Meg.

 “You just consider anything different to be Hipster.” Meg sighs “This is good music, who cares what it is?”

“I never said Alt-J was bad. I’m just trying to keep Castiel from getting sucked into your bullshit. He seems impressionable.” Dean says smiling mockingly at Castiel.

Castiel frowns and takes slight offense to Deans comment. It was probably meant as a joke but he doesn’t take kindly to being referred to as some child that does whatever those around him do. “I am not impressionable.” He says glaring at Dean.

“Was a joke Cas.” Deans huffs as he takes another swig of his beer.

“I don’t-.”

“Lets play a game shall we?” Balthazar cuts in and gives Castiel a look that seems to say it would be best if they dropped the current conversation.

Castiel sighs and eyes Dean with irritation. He had gotten worse during the course of the night and had been throwing rude comments at Castiel all night and then tries to cover it up by saying it was ‘just a joke’. Castiel knows that Dean is probably still not very happy about last night and it’s probably why he’s acting out, but that was no excuse for being a child.

“Ooh! Sounds fun. What are we playing?” Charlie asks excitedly from her space on the armchair.

They had shifted around during the night and Castiel had ended up on the shag carpet, sitting crossed legged next to Balthazar while Dean and Meg still occupied the couch and Charlie, the armchair.

Balthazar puts his hand to his chin and makes as if he’s thinking intently. “How about… Never Have I Ever?”

There’s a mixture of groans from both Meg and Dean and a whispered “yes” from Charlie at the suggestion. “I’ll get everyone a refill! That includes you too Cas!” Charlie says excitedly running to the kitchen to grab everyone another beer.

Castiels brow creases and he looks around the room expectantly, hoping someone would explain what was happening.

“Let me guess, you’ve never played that game before?” Dean smirks and raises an eyebrow questioningly.

Castiel shakes his head and turns his gaze away from Dean to keep himself from getting annoyed with his condescending attitude again and looks at Balthazar for explanation.

“Not a problem Cassie!” Balthazar says happily and leans forward as he explains. “Basically, it’s a drinking game. We go around the circle and whoever’s turn it is will say ‘Never have I ever… and then they say something they’ve never done before. If anyone in the circle _has_ done what the other person mentioned, then they take a sip of their drink. If you haven’t done it then you don’t. Got it?”

Castiel is still frowning but he nods, he’s pretty sure he gets the concept but it seems a rather silly game. “I think so.”

“Don’t worry, you can go last so you can see how it’s done.” Balthazar says patting him on the back.

Charlie comes bounding back into the room with more beer and places a new bottle in front of everyone. “Let’s do this.” She says with a mischievous grin on her face. “Start off slow though, we don’t wanna scare Cas away.”

“I’ll go first then.” Balthazar says, playing with the label on his beer bottle as he thinks. “Okay. Never have I ever been rock climbing.” He says with a shrug.

Castiel looks around the room and sees Dean and Charlie take a sip of their beers. He’s never had the chance or inclination to go rock climbing so he doesn’t drink.

“My turn.” Charlie says shuffling on the armchair. “Never have I ever gotten a ninety on a math test.”

Castiel looks around the room and when no one else takes a sip of their drink, he slowly lifts his bottle up to his lips and tries to be inconspicuous.

“Are you serious?” Dean yells from the couch while Castiels swallows. “Dude what the hell?”

Castiel blushes and stares down at the carpet. “I like math.”

“Alright, alright, Meg your turn.” Charlie cuts in.

Meg bites her lip and stares at the ceiling as she thinks. “Never have I ever… had a girlfriend.” Megs says smiling at Charlie.

“You just did that to get me to drink.” Charlie says as she rolls her eyes and takes a sip of her beer. “I can change that for you, you know?” She says winking suggestively back at Meg.

“With you? Ew.” Meg says mockingly as she shoves Charlie lightly.

Castiel notices the only other person that drinks is Dean, but it’s not like he expected Balthazar to drink to that, under the circumstances.

“Really Cassie? A face like yours and you’ve never had a girlfriend?” Balthazar chuckles as Castiel blushes and just shakes his head.

“Go Dean!” Charlie yells

“This game is stupid.” Dean sighs but still looks as if he’s thinking. “Ah, never have I ever bought flowers.” Dean says shaking his head, obviously using the first thing that popped into his head.

“Lame.” Meg draws out as she takes a sip.

“Shut up.” Dean bites back rolling his eyes.

Castiel takes a sip with Balthazar and then realizes it’s his turn.

“Go on Cas!” Charlie says nodding encouragingly at him.

He has no idea what he’s going to ask, but he knows he needs to keep it simple. Maybe he could copy Charlie and do something with grades? Maybe some sort of activity? He’s starting to realise this game added a certain amount of pressure with everyone staring and waiting.

“Never have I ever had a boyfriend.” Castiel deadpans before he can catch himself.

He hadn’t meant to say that one. He was actually just kind of thinking about it, but then he glanced over at Dean and it just slipped out. He felt his cheeks heat up as he looked around the circle.

“Oh yeah tons.” Charlie says sarcastically and then starts to chuckle.

Both Meg and Balthazar sip their drinks, but not Dean.

“Deanie! Why aren’t you drinking?” Meg sings and pokes Dean in his ribs.

Dean glares at her “Because I haven’t.”

“Liar. What about that third year? The swimmer?” Meg fans her face and winks at Dean and he blushes.

“We were _not_ dating.” Dean growls at Meg.

“Alright children, enough. My turn.” Balthazar says, eyeing Dean and Meg, daring them to continue.

The game continues like that for a while. The questions were silly, but Castiel thinks it’s a good way to learn about the people you’re with. So far he’s learned that Balthazar has had more than a few boyfriends and so has Meg, and Dean may or may not have, which he is incredibly curious about despite himself.

He’s learnt that Dean and Charlie had been expelled during some point in high school and Meg is the only one out of all of them that has been inside a strip club. He had expected Dean to drink to that one, but had found himself pleasantly surprised when he didn’t.

It’s Megs turn again now and Castiel notices her glance in his direction before she smiles mischievously “Never have I ever had sex.” She says eyeing him again.

“Meg you liar.” Dean hisses at her as he follows her gaze back to Castiel.

“You’re such a cheater. If you’re curious just ask.” Balthazar says calmer than how Dean had spoken, but there is still some agitation in his words.

Castiel isn’t entirely sure what’s happening. Why would Meg try to ask something that she knew she’d actually done? What was she so curious about?

“Alright. Fine.” Meg says throwing rebellious glances between Dean and Balthazar.

Charlie isn’t saying anything but she does seem to be a bit ruffled by Meg too.

“Cas, are you a virgin?” Meg asks abruptly, eyebrows raised

Castiel stares back at her with wide eyes. He’s not particularly offended by the question, but he hasn’t known half the group for very long and this wasn’t like the questions in the game. This had been aimed straight at him and had now made him the centre of attention on what he felt was something kind of personal.

“You don’t have to answer that Cas.” Charlie says gently and then turns to shove Meg. “You’re so nosey!”

“You’re right, I am. So What?” Meg says glaring challengingly back at Charlie.

“Meg-.”

“No, that’s alright Charlie.” Castiel cuts in, smiling reassuringly at her. “I don’t mind.”

He glances around the circle and sees Dean eyeing him with almost more curiosity than Meg had. “I haven’t had sex but I’m not embarrassed by it.” He says shrugging nonchalantly.

“I knew it!” Meg sings but is quickly silenced as Charlie lays an impressive blow to her arm.

“Ow! What the hell? I’m just curious! How often do we come across virgins in college? It’s like spotting a unicorn!” Just about everyone rolls their eyes at that.

“Well it’s rude to harass Cas about it.” Charlie warns Meg.

“Charlie, I really don’t mind. It doesn’t bother me as much as it seems to bother others.” Castiel says looking pointedly at Meg.

He spots Dean smile out of the corner of his eye and can hear Balthazar chuckle lightly. “Good for you Cassie.

“So I can ask questions then?” Meg asks excitedly.

“I assume the question will be why?” Castiel sighs.

This wasn’t anything new. He had been getting the same questions for the past three years or more now and although answering them doesn’t bug him, it’s the reactions he gets from his answers that get to him. Not many people share his views on sex and he was getting tired of people telling him he was reading too much into it.

Meg nods and even manages to look a bit guilty about her question.

“I don’t want to.” Castiel answers simply, erasing the chance of questions about whether he had ever had the chance or if it had just never happened for him.

“Yeah, okay but _why_?” Meg pushes. “Is it a ‘waiting-for-the-right-person thing’? A marriage thing?”

“It is a lot of things.” Castiel admits softly. “I would say the right person but what happens if that person ends up not being the right person?”

“Well then hopefully the sex was great.” Dean says with a smirk and takes another sip of his drink.

Castiel frowns and stares down at his hands. “That’s not the point. I don’t place a lot of importance on sex. Yes I’m sure it’s a big part in a healthy relationship, but it’s not the _most_ important aspect.”

There’s silence in the room for a few seconds before Balthazar speaks up. “Cassie you’re gay right?”

Castiel stares at Balthazar with a puzzled expression. He was expecting more questions on his sex life, not his sexual orientation.

“I don’t think so.”

“What do you mean you don’t think so?” Dean pipes up and leans forward with a confused look on his face.

“I mean, I know I’m not straight because I’ve kissed both girls and guys and liked it, but I don’t really care much for sexual orientation.”

“So what you’re saying is you’re not a labels guy?” Balthazar tries “But what if you end up liking a guy and get married or whatever but end up not liking the sex?”

“He just said the sex isn’t important Balt!” Charlie whines, throwing her head in her hands.

“I know, I know.” Balthazar throws his hands up in surrender. “I’m just saying, I know a couple of guys that thought they were gay but quickly changed their minds after they got a dick up the arse.”

Dean sputters around his beer bottle and almost spits all over Charlies shag carpeting “What the hell Balthazar?” He gets out along with a few violent coughs. “That’s really not how it works.”

“Yeah cause the half-breed would know.” Balthazar throws back playfully.

“Just because I like it both ways, doesn’t mean I know any less than you do.” Dean chuckles.

“Guys could you stop! Poor Castiel is going to dig himself a hole soon!” Charlies laughs as she looks at Castiels distraught face.

He was doing just fine up until Balthazar’s rather crude comment and it feels like his face is on fire.

“Alright that’s it. Party over.” Charlie says, clapping her hands together and moving from the armchair. “Everyone out.”

There are a few groans and mumbled complaints from everyone as Charlie shuffles them to the door but they know better than to challenge Charlie in her own dorm room. Castiel gets hugged tightly by Balthazar and gets a seductive wink from Meg before they leave together, deciding to go for a few more drinks down the road.

 Dean however hangs back to speak to Charlie. Castiel keeps to himself in the living room as they speak, not wanting to interrupt or eavesdrop. He does glance at them every now and again though and notices that the conversation doesn’t seem to be a very pleasant one, they’re both frowning and Charlie has pointed in his direction more than once now.

Castiel quickly averts his eyes when they both look over at him and Dean makes his way back into the living room where Cas is. He looks awkward and maybe a little bit nervous, while Charlie stands in the background with her arms folded across her chest.

Castiel stares up at Dean curiously, waiting for him to speak.

“Can we- could we maybe talk?” Dean mutters, his eyes down cast.

Castiel raises his eyebrows and opens his mouth to say something.

“Not right this minute, but maybe tomorrow after class? We could get lunch or something?”  Dean continues hurriedly.

Castiels mouth is still hanging open and he looks over at Charlie for guidance. She nods her head and smiles at him encouragingly.

“Ah, alright.” He replies, a confused frown working its way onto his face.

“Awesome. I- I’ll see you tomorrow then.” Dean gives a small gesture that seems to fall somewhere between a wave and a salute and walks away quickly, hugging Charlie shortly before he walks out of the dorm room and shuts the door a little too forcefully.

Charlie looks back over at Castiel and jabs a finger in his direction. “You owe me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed!  
> Again, if there are any problems (spelling mistakes etc) please let me know :).  
> Thanks guys!


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cas and Dean have lunch and get to talking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a shorter chapter this time but it felt right??
> 
> Thanks for all the support guys :D! I promise a longer chapter for my next update! bare with me this week though, it's been a pretty rough one and I haven't had has much time as I had hoped for but that should get better soon!
> 
> anyway that's enough form me!   
> Carry on

Castiel isn’t sure why Charlie thinks he somehow owes her for his lunch date with Dean. Maybe she thought he got a kick out of awkward situations, or maybe she was as uncomfortable by their bickering the previous night as everyone else seemed to be. Either way, he was not really happy about it and thought he could easily live with not being Dean’s favourite person.

Which is the lie he tries to burn into his own mind throughout his day. Unfortunately he was starting to realise that he too wasn’t okay with the tension between himself and Dean. He actually liked Dean, when he wasn’t being a complete ass and making condescending and snarky comments.

He starts to wonder if he could still somehow back out of the whole thing, even though he had already reconfirmed with Dean via a very shortly worded text message and was already walking to the courtyard where they were supposed to meet.

 Would Dean even be that surprised if he didn’t show? Castiel certainly wouldn’t be surprised if Dean never showed. Disappointed yes, but it wouldn’t surprise him.

He walks over to one of the long tables in the courtyard and sits on the bench attached to it. The old wooden tables seem out of place in the courtyard surrounded by modern art sculptures and newly refurbished school buildings. He cranes his head and tries to see if he can spot Dean anywhere but gives up self-consciously, not wanting to seem desperate.

He’s early after all, by a good ten minutes actually, but that fact still doesn’t seem to calm his growing nerves. Hoping not to look too silly sitting there all by himself, Castiel takes out his notes and starts to read over the list of what he needs to cover for the test he has coming up. Macbeth is not particularly his favourite play and he’s certain there are far more interesting books out there that they could have assigned instead of teaching them the same thing they learnt in High school, but as long as it keeps him busy at this point, it’s the best book in the world.

“So you’re pretty eager.” Deans cocky voice comes from over his shoulder, making Castiel jump.

Dean chuckles at the reaction and moves to drop his bag down next to the table and sits across from Cas at the table. Castiel narrows his eyes at him and hopes that comment isn’t a preview of how this lunch is going to go.

“My lecturer let us out early.” Castiel says simply, tucking his reading material back into his rucksack.

“Well that’s lucky. My lecturers are real assholes. I’m pretty sure if they could they would keep us there all day.” Dean says shaking his head.

Castiel just nods lightly and stares down at his hands folded in front of him on the table.

“So you have an idea about what you wanna eat? My treat.” Dean is already moving away from the table and taking his wallet out.

“You don’t have to do that.” Castiel frowns up at him. The last thing Castiel wants to do is feel like he owes Dean anything.

“Seriously, I don’t mind, just tell me what you want. We have-.” Dean turns around in a circle to survey their current options “Burgers, Wraps, Shawarmas, aren’t those the same thing? Salads, which I will not allow but I’m going to point it out anyway and a whole bunch of other crap. Take your pick.” Dean finishes off with a wide, expectant smile pointed at Castiel.

It confuses Castiel enough that he doesn’t answer Dean right away and he knows he is probably staring like a complete idiot, but he’s pretty taken back by Deans casual good mood, considering how grumpy he had seemed last night.

“Uhm.” He replies intelligently after about a solid minute of staring.

“Okay, well I’m feeling shawarmas today so that’s what I’m gonna get.” Dean says cocking an eyebrow at Castiel.

“I’ll have the same then I guess. Pick whatever you like, I’m not picky.”

Dean raises his eyebrows and chuckles. “Really? You kind of strike me as the picky type.”

Castiel stares at Dean with a crestfallen expression. Dean has obviously developed an unbecoming opinion of Castiel and it somehow makes his cheeks flush with embarrassment. He knows he can come off as stuck up, he's been told this by many people before, but he hadn't realised that that was how Dean saw him too. 

“Anyway, I’ll be back in sec, unless you wanna come with?”

Castiel already feels pretty awkward and he knows they would be forced to make small talk if they stood in the Shawarma line together and the thought makes Castiel cringe internally.

“That’s alright, I’ll wait here, look over my notes some more.” Castiel replies shyly.

Dean just nods and actually looks a little bit relieved by Castiels reply as he heads off in the direction of the Shawarma truck. The great thing about campus is that they actually allow food trucks in the courtyard, which Castiel had always thought would be a no, no for a lot of Universities, considering they tended to have this very stuck up attitude about most things.

He sighs and pulls his book out again, but he doesn’t read it. He’s too busy watching Dean as he stands in line. He can’t deny that he feels some sort of attraction to the guy, well of course he’s attracted to him, he did kiss Dean after all, but he also can’t hide the fact that Dean irritates him somewhat. He’s not sure if he was just too drunk to realise how Dean really was when they were out together or whether he’s just putting on a show, but Castiel is secretly hoping it will stop after today.

He watches as Dean moves further up the line, swaying back and forth on his heels with his hands in his jean pockets. There are a few times when he has to quickly avert his eyes back to his reading when Dean glances over at him and he’s almost certain he can see Dean smiling smugly from across the courtyard.

Eventually though, Dean makes his way back with the food and places a plastic plate in front of Castiel and sits down with a happy sigh as he stares at his own. “Dig in.” He says rubbing his hands together and taking a really fast and large mouthful of his food.

Castiel narrows his eyes slightly at Deans eagerness and slowly and gently picks up his own food. “Thank you.” He says softly, bringing the food up to his lips and taking a much more reserved bite than Dean had.

“No problem.” Dean mumbles out through a mouth full of food.

They sit in silence for a minute or two, both obviously not knowing what to say, before Dean pipes up all of a sudden and starts rambling on about his lecturers and his classes. He doesn’t leave much room for breathing let alone eating as he carries on about which of his professors is giving him the most hell and which one he actually secretly finds attractive.

“I mean seriously as an educator should she _really_ be wearing dresses like that? It’s just inappropriate is all I’m sayin’.” Dean continues still chewing.  

Castiel is certain he may just blow a fuse if Dean carries on this way. “Dean.” He grits out bit harsher than he intended to, setting his shawarma back down on his plate.

Dean stops short and Castiel swears he actually looks a little bit embarrassed. “I’m not an expert when it comes to socializing.” Castiel continues slowly, as if waiting for Dean to somehow interrupt with some snide comment, which luckily, he doesn’t. “But I assume that there is a reason for all of this.” He finishes off by gesturing to the food and then between the two of them. “You did say we needed to talk?”

Dean stares at Castiel and it looks like he’s about to protest that when Castiel gives him a knowing look and Dean swallows his food and sighs heavily. “Yeah, I guess.”

Castiel raises his eyebrows and waits for Dean to continue.

“Charlie is very forceful.” Dean mutters looking down at his almost nonexistent food.

Castiel knows that it was Charlie that convinced Dean to have lunch with him, but hearing it still leaves him feeling oddly disappointed. He quickly scolds himself for this however and reminds himself that he knew that had been the case and that he shouldn’t be silly enough to allow himself to be disappointed that Dean didn’t decide on the lunch date on his own.

“She thinks we need to talk.” Castiel adds for Dean.

He nods and rubs his hands over his eyes. “Yeah.”

They’re both quiet then, both waiting for the other to finally broach the subject, but not wanting to be the one to do it. Dean starts picking at his plate and Castiel eyes him expectantly. When it’s clear that Dean isn’t going to say anything Castiel sighs.

“I’m sorry.”

Deans eyes shoot up from his plate and are wide with disbelief as he looks at Castiel. “What?”

It’s now Castiels turn to rub at his eyes in frustration and then looks pointedly back at Dean. “I’m sorry. For the other night. For last night. I’m sorry.”

Dean narrows his eyes at Castiel and smirks. “Wanna be more specific there Cas?” He says in that cocky way that makes Castiels blood boil.

Castiel feels himself ruffle at Deans words and he glares menacingly at him. “Seriously? You know damn well what I mean.” Castiel growls and carries on despite Deans raised eyebrows. “Are you always like this? Or did I really do that much damage to your ego?”

Castiel gets the words out in rushed annoyance and once he’s said it and he takes note of Deans slack jawed expression and he starts to realise that that was definitely not the best way to fix things between the two of them.

“I’m sorry.” Castiel mumbles genuinely. “I just- you really weren’t like this the other night. I had fun with you. Guess I messed it up though.”

Dean snorts and Castiel throws him a pointed look, silently cautioning him on his next choice of wording.

 “Cas, seriously I just wanna know what the big deal is. So it happened. Big whoop.” Dean says shrugging nonchalantly. “I was cool with it. You obviously liked it, but then you kinda freaked out on me. Hurts a guys feelings you know.” He says quirking a playful smile at Castiel.

Castiel frowns as he lets Deans words sink in. He knew that running away after it had happened was not the best course of action but he hadn’t thought that had affected Dean that badly. Mostly he just assumed that Dean would get over it and that it was something he probably did every weekend anyway, that’s definitely the case from the little he’s heard about him.

“I guess I didn’t think it was that big a deal. I _am_ sorry.” Castiel continues softly, feeling an embarrassed flush creep up his neck.

Dean smiles brightly and waves his hand in a ‘don’t-worry-about-it’ fashion. “It’s all good Cas. If it helps, I’m sorry I’ve been such a moody bastard. You’re right, my ego is pretty fragile.”

Castiel snorts at Deans confession and starts to feel a warm appreciation and respect for him at his apology.

“So… truce?” Dean asks with a raised eyebrow.

Castiel looks to the side and puts his fingers to his chin pretending to think about it. Dean smirks at the gesture and Castiel smiles and nods his head curtly. “I would like that.”

“So are we allowed to have a civil conversation about it now?” Dean asks setting his lips in a straight line. It looks as if he’s not sure if he’s allowed to broach the subject but his curiosity is getting the best of him and he’s asked anyway.

Castiels brow creases in confusion and slight offense. “You say that like _I_ was the one not being civil?”

“I never said that.” Dean retorts with a straight face, but Castiel notices the side of his lip twitch.

He lets out an exasperated sigh and looks pointedly at Dean, waiting for him to start the conversation he’s obviously so interested in having. “What is it you wanted to ask or say exactly?” He asks impatiently when Dean doesn’t say anything. If anything Dean looks really nervous, like he thinks he’s going to say something wrong and piss Castiel off.

“So you freaking out was because you’re just kind of weird and not because I’m a bad kisser right?” Dean asks hurriedly and then resorts to looking back down at his plate looking understandably embarrassed by his choice of words.

Castiel quirks a smile at the comment though and Dean looks surprised by it, obviously expecting him to get offended again, but Castiel can’t help it smile at Deans obvious worry about his kissing abilities. His ego really is fragile.

“I enjoyed it Dean.” Castel says smiling wider, then letting it fade slowly as he continues. “But like I had mentioned before, my family is not the most understanding and I may have been startled when I caught site of Anna at the bar.”

Dean frowns and sets his lips back in a thin line. “You think Anna would mind?”

Castiel scrunches up his nose as he thinks about that for a second. “I-I’m not sure really. I think if it came down to it, I know Anna would be accepting because she loves me, but I know she doesn’t approve of it. No one in my family is very understanding. They have certain beliefs about right and wrong but I don’t believe they even know where those beliefs come from.”

Dean smiles sympathetically at Castiels admission. “Yeah I get it. My old man was like that too.”

Castiel frowns and can’t help it notice Deans use of past tense. “Was? Did you manage to convince him otherwise?”

Dean shuffles awkwardly in his seat and rubs the back of his neck. “Ah, no he actually died a few years back.” He says softly but when he looks back up at Castiel he notices he’s gone a bit rigid at the confession and he shrugs nonchalantly. “Was a while ago.”

Castiel nods slowly. “My ah- my mother too.” He says clearing his throat. He’s only bringing it up because it seems like Dean is having trouble with bringing up the dad situation and Castiel thinks it would be better if they struggled together. “You know…”

Dean smiles back at Castiel sympathetically. They seem to share a moment of understanding then and Castiel is grateful that the lunch was going a lot better than he had ever expected and he’s actually feeling pretty guilty for even thinking about not showing up for it.

“Okay, so, I just wanted you to know that I don’t expect anything.” Dean says suddenly changing the subject, his cheeks gaining colour as he stumbles over his own words.

Castiel frowns and tilts his head in confusion at the statement.

“From you I mean.” Dean tries to elaborate, although Castiel is still not entirely sure what he means so he continues his confused observation of the other man.

Dean sighs loudly and drops his head in his hands. “I’m trying to say that I want to be friends with you. You know without expecting anything… physical.” Dean rambles on, scrunching up his nose as if he’s extremely unhappy with the way he’s coming across.

Castiel tries to keep his expression as neutral as possible but he’s finding Deans scrambling incredibly entertaining and can’t help it when his lips twitch slightly with the intention of smiling.

Dean raises his eyebrows, obviously spotting the slight slip in Castiels expression and he turns to stare back at his plate while smiling and shaking his head. “Something funny Cas?”

Castiels smiles back properly this time and he knows he must look kind of smug but he can’t help it. He loves seeing the otherwise sure and cocky Dean Winchester stutter and get embarrassed, it kind of makes up for the way he acted last night.

“Not at all.” Castiel replies serenely. “You’re saying that you would want us to be friends?”

Castiel accidentally says the word ‘friends’ with a slight hint of disdain in his voice and scolds himself for not keeping his own emotions in check. Dean had obviously noticed the edge to the word too and his face instantly falls and he looks away trying not to look too phased by it.

“Well, if you don’t want to, that’s cool, I just-.”

Castiels eyes widen as he realizes what Dean had taken away from the way he had said the word ‘friends’. Dean thinks he doesn’t want to be friends at all. Which couldn’t be further from the truth, Castiel is ecstatic with the prospect of getting a second chance with Dean, he really did think he was a good guy behind his show boating and questionable comments.

What Castiel hadn’t realized was how disappointed he was by the concept of just friends. Which is why he had said the word with such annoyance, he had never really considered even trying to be more than friends with anyone and neither did he think he was even capable of such a thing (or ready for it for that matter) but it seemed that Dean interested him enough to make him question if he would perhaps consider anything physical.

“I want us to be friends.” Castiel blurts out quickly. He had noticed Dean was sinking further into himself during Castiels internal discussion and he needed something to save the moment as quickly as possible.

Dean looks up quickly, a bit shocked at the outburst at first but then quirks a playful smile. “So no action then?”

“That was inappropriately forward Dean.” Castiels states calmly, raising an eyebrow judgmentally at the other man.

Dean just laughs though. “Yeah, sorry. A guy can hope. Guess I wasn’t as good as I thought I was then.”

Castiel smiles shyly and shifts awkwardly in his seat. “It’s not that… I ah, just don’t know how to do any of this stuff. So I think it would be appropriate for us to stay friends.”

“Was there a ‘for now’ you may have left off the end of that sentence?” Dean says winking at Castiel as he continues to shy away from the current conversation.

“Dean.” Castiel warns half heartedly, his smile growing bigger and even more bashful.

Dean chuckles and picks up his neglected shawarma. “Cas, you are too adorable.” He says mockingly, taking a bite.

Castiel scrunches up his nose at the word. “Don’t say that.”

“Joke Cas. Joke.”

“It’s an awfully condescending word, I can’t help that it makes me cringe. Joke or not.” Castiel states with a shrug, picking up his own food.

“So cute is out of the question too then?” Dean say smirking over his food.

Castiel glares at him and doesn’t even bother with a response as he starts to eat again.

Dean chuckles and finishes off his last large mouthful of food. “I’m gonna grow on you so quickly man.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Castiel and Dean discuss the upcoming school break and Dean organizes them both a once off job.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning: blatant quoting from the series. (heh heh, I had to)  
> You guys will probably pick it up quickly.  
> not beta read so feel free to point out any problems if you see them please!

Castiel spends the next couple of days meeting Dean in the courtyard for lunch, although they both run out of money pretty quickly not realising that buying lunch every day isn’t an option when you’re a student. They still end up meeting every day anyway, bringing their own food –mostly consisting of snacks- and chat and do assignments together.

They’re able to help each other out every once in a while with assignments; Castiel helping Dean to word his essays for his journalism class just right and Dean _trying_ to help Castiel get different view points on his reading material for English. Mostly though he just complains about how Castiel is reading too much into everything and when Castiel tries to explain to him that that is in fact the point most of the time, Dean throws his hands up in the air and curses the language as a whole.

“Why do you even want to study this?” Dean moans as he squints at a poem Castiel has been assigned “This isn’t fun and it sure as hell doesn’t make any sense.”

Castiel just smiles and takes the paper gently from Deans hands and looks down at the words fondly. He knows a lot of people don’t get it, but for him the written word means the world to him, it’s a way for him to express himself without being uncomfortable or unsure. He has so much to say but is never confident enough to actually say it. His grandmother had once commented rather sadly that Castiel had always been a quiet child.

That doesn’t bug him though, he’s content the way he is, even if he’s not the best at making conversation. He’s always believed that the quietest people are the ones that generally have the most beautiful and insightful things to say anyway and he just hopes he lives up to his own opinion.

“It makes sense to me.” He says serenely.

Dean gives him a look he can’t seem to place, it’s like he’s trying to figure something out about Castiel but can’t seem to even grasp what it is he’s looking for, so he just smiles and shakes his head and carries on with his own work.

They haven’t brought up the night at the club again, both of them having silently agreed that it is water under the bridge and that it didn’t need to be mentioned again, which is something Castiel is pretty thankful for and can gladly carry on without the awkwardness he lead the both of them into that night.

Besides spending most of his time with Dean, Castiel has also managed to spend some time with Balthazar. They had gone to a movie one night together and had bonded quite easily over their shared love of popcorn and Chris Evans. Castiel hasn’t ever really had a friend like Balthazar before; he’s extremely hyperactive and he can punch out crude and sexual comments like it’s some sort of talent.

The comments are never directed at Castiel though, no matter how good looking he finds the Brit neither of them seem to see the other in that sort of way. Instead, they’ve fallen into some sort of weird dynamic where Balthazar will do most of the talking (not that he seems to mind) and Castiel will try to keep up and make appropriate commentary where it’s needed.

He’s never been so busy with friends in his entire life. Even Meg has tried to get him to go out on a couple occasions, invitations which he has politely declined because he’s still not sure about Meg and he is definitely not ready to hang out alone with her just yet.

He’s received a few concerned calls from Gabriel however due to his busy schedule with his new group of friends. Although it’s more to do with the fact that he’s stayed over at Charlies for the whole week and not just about him spending so much time out.

“Cassie, don’t you think it’s about time you came home?” Gabriel asks in his usual chipper manner over the phone. “I mean, I know you’re having fun but I’m concerned about your clean clothing situation.”

Gabriel tries to make it light and joking, but Castiel can see right through the act even over the phone and he instantly feels bad for not being home in a while. His brother may seem like your nonchalant joker type, always in the mood for a good time, but he can get lonely too sometimes.

“I’ll be home tonight Gabriel.” Castiel replies smiling softly through the phone hoping Gabriel will pick up on it and it will make him feel better.

“Well, yeah, cool, you know whatever you wanna do little bro.” Gabriel stammers out trying to be cool. “Also... Luci has, ah, kinda been asking about you.”

Castiel can feel himself tense up at the mention of his older brother and a wave of annoyance passes through him.

 “What about me exactly?” Castiel grits out.

“Well he’s not exactly thrilled about you hitting the town so much lately.”

Castiel frowns and lets the annoyance continue to seep through his body until it starts to make him angry. He hates that Lucifer feels the need to check up on him. Did he think Gabriel wasn’t good enough to look after him properly? Or is he just that bored with his own life that he needed to constantly keep tabs on Castiels?

“I have not been ‘hitting the town’.” Castiel says with a little more venom than he had intended. He has to remind himself that he’s not angry with Gabriel and taking his frustrations out on him was not what his big brother deserved. “I’ve been working, with friends yes, but I’m still working.”

“I know that Cassie, but you know how Luc can be.” Gabriel sighs.

Castiel groans through the phone and rubs at his eyes in exasperation. Of course he knew. Lucifer has been on his case since the beginning of his freshman year in high school, which is understandable because Lucifer has been the one paying for Castiels school fees, but it’s something he doesn’t fail to remind Castiel of whenever he has the opportunity.

“I- I’ll call him later and let him know everything is fine and that he doesn’t need to worry. I’m sorry he’s bugging you with this Gabe.”

“I don’t mind Cassie, I’d rather be in the middle than have you two rip each other’s throats out.”

“Thank you Gabriel.” Castiel says sincerely.

“Yeah, yeah, don’t get all mushy on me! Just get your butt home after your visit with your boyfriend.”

Castiel goes quiet for a second and tries to think of an intelligent comeback. “He- Gabriel he is _not_ my boyfriend!” He squeaks out.

Gabriel chuckles deeply and puts the phone down without so much as a goodbye and it leaves Castiel with a crimson blush running down his neck.

He’s still grumbling about the annoyance of big brothers and the rudeness of ending a phone call without saying goodbye when he reaches the table in the courtyard where he and Dean had been sitting at. Dean is already seated and is paging through his theory book as Castiel drops his book bag and sits down with a huff on the other side of the table.

Dean looks up slowly from his book and smiles mockingly at Castiel.

“Well, well, someone’s having a good day.” He says eyeing Castiel with amusement. 

Castiel rolls his eyes and glares at Dean. His glares don’t seem to intimidate Dean though and if anything it just makes him smile even wider

“What’s up Buttercup?” Dean asks, still in a very poke-the-bear sort of attitude.

Castiel sighs lightly and leans his elbow on the table and rests his chin in his hand. “It’s nothing of real import. My brother is just expecting me home tonight.”

“Oh… Well that makes sense. You haven’t been home the whole week anyway.” Dean replies with a shrug.

Yes. I am aware of that Dean.” Castiel says menacingly.

“Hey, don’t take whatever it is you got going on at home out on me buddy.” Dean says chuckling

Castiel huffs and stares across the courtyard. “It doesn’t matter. It’s not like I had anything planned tonight anyway.” He mumbles, watching all the other students.

He’s certain they all probably have plans for tonight. It is a Friday night after all and according to every college cliché ever, everyone was supposed to be out partying and getting wasted and making questionable decisions and then repeat the process on Saturday night. Castiel has never been one to live up to any of society’s expectations’, so not going out on a Friday is really of no concern to him.

He hears Dean chuckle and glances over at him lazily. Dean has one eyebrow raised and is smirking like he’s in on a joke that Castiel once again isn’t aware of.

“What?” Castiel asks frowning.

“Was that your not so subtle way of saying you want to do something tonight Cas?”

Castiel stares back at Dean with a blank expression and complete confusion. “I wasn’t-.”

“It’s cool man, just say it out right next time.” Dean says laughing softly and shaking his head.

Castiels brow creases and he feels himself blush, but he’s not even sure why. He didn’t mean what Dean thinks he meant, he was really just stating a fact and Dean was jumping to conclusions as usual.

“I was not hinting at anything Dean. I do not ‘hint’. I also just said that I needed to be home tonight, if that were the case, then why would I be ‘hinting’ at going out?” Castiels ears are still burning but once he’s explained himself properly (albeit a little defensively) he simmers down.

“Okay, okay.” Dean says rasing his hands up in surrender. “Geez, you really are grumpy today aren’t you?”

Castiel rolls his eyes and starts digging his work out of his back pack. “I’m not grumpy.” He mumbles.

“I wouldn’t be able to go out tonight anyway.” Dean continues, completely ignoring Castiels statement. “My little bro has some girl coming over and apparently I have to ‘chaperone’. Dean snorts

Castiel opens his mouth to comment but Dean cuts him off. “Oh! But I actually wanted to ask you about something. Well two somethings, but only if you say yes to the first something.” Dean is grinning like a kid on Christmas morning and is way too excitable for Castiels current mood.

Castiel eyes him curiously. “Alright?”

Dean licks his lips and straightens up in his seat, obviously getting ready to dive into whatever it is he needs to say. “Okay, so Charlie always talks about how she wants to go road tripping right?” Dean asks looking expectantly at Castiel, who just shrugs.

“Well two of our friends; Ash and Kevin organized a Microbus- Ash’s parents are like retired hippies or something- so we can actually do the trip during break… And I was wondering if you maybe wanted to come with?”

Dean had gotten everything out so quickly that it takes Castiel a moment to register everything, but when he does, he gets a weird feeling in his stomach and he has to fight the urge to smile like a maniac. Dean is still waiting for Castiels answer when Castiel remembers something and he tilts his head contemplatively and raises an eyebrow.

“This coming break?” He asks slowly.

Dean nods enthusiastically and Castiel has to admit that seeing Dean like this; so excited and enthusiastic makes his stomach clench.

“I hate to break it to you Dean, but the reason we bring lunch with us now instead of buying is because we’re both incredibly lacking in the monetary department.”

Dean frowns at Castiel. “Who speaks like that?”

Castiel ignores him and carries on. “How are we supposed to go on a trip without any money?”

Unless Dean hadn’t even thought about that at all, or unless he is lucky enough that he could get the money from family. Castiel would never ask Gabriel for money that wasn’t for anything completely necessary. He didn’t want to inconvenience his big brother in any way.

“Well that’s the second something I wanted to talk to you about.” Dean is practically glowing he looks so excited. “I got a job on Sunday at a market slash road show thing and they asked if I knew anyone else that could help out and I kinda dropped your name in there.”

Castiel blinks at Dean and then smiles slowly. “That’s very thoughtful of you Dean.”

Dean looks down at his work on the table and Castiel notices his cheeks have gone a satisfying shade of pink.

“Ah yeah.” Dean clears his throat and looks back up at Castiel. “Well is that alright?”

“What kind of job is it?” Castiel asks still smiling

“It’s a promotions job. I think it’s for some sort of new energy drink.” Dean says shrugging.

Castiels smile falters instantly. “A promotions job?” He asks quietly

Dean frowns at Castiels reaction. “Yeah… Why? What’s wrong with that?”

Castiel swallows and shifts awkwardly in his seat. “Aren’t those jobs usually reserved for the, ah, more aesthetically gifted students?”

Castiel stares down at his hands as he finishes his sentence. He’s grateful that Dean had thought of him when planning the trip, as well as organizing him a job to pay for said trip, but he’s almost certain that Deans employers may not be too impressed with Deans choice of help.

“Are you kidding me?”

Castiel glances up at Deans sudden outburst and notices his mouth is hanging wide open and he looks almost offended. “Cas do you not own a mirror?”

“Castiel is thrown by the comment and he stutters as he tries to argue but Dean is quick to continue.

“Oh no, you are not going to sit here and tell me you don’t know you’re actually hot.” Dean is clearly annoyed when he makes the statement but as soon as he looks over at Castiels stunned face, he stops short and starts to actually think about what he just said.

“Don’t… look at me like that.” Dean mumbles, paging uselessly through his text book and blushing that beautiful shade of pink Castiel is starting to like very much.

“Like how?” Castiel asks in mock innocence.

“Like you didn’t totally know I think you’re good looking or whatever.” Dean says waving a hand in a non committal fashion but it doesn’t take away from his words at all and Castiel is practically singing on the inside.

“That’s very nice of you to say Dean.” Castiel says giving a tight lipped smile, his stomach is fluttering and he has to physically stop himself from laughing in pure hysterical glee at Deans comment.

“Yeah, okay.” Dean says shortly, trying to seem unconcerned with the whole conversation.

“Even so… That would not change the fact that I may not make the world’s best salesman. My people skills are… rusty at best.” Castiel says chuckling, trying to imagine himself actually having the courage to go up to some person he doesn’t know and shove a product in their face.

“Oh that?” Dean shifts, perking up again. “You’ll be fine! It could be a team effort! I’ll be the charm and lure the people in and you be the brains and just sprout some scientific bullshit about how it’s good for their metabolism or high blood pressure or some shit, you’re good with words.”

“Yes… writing them.” Castiel says frowning. Surely Dean didn’t think it was just going to be that easy for him to get into?

“Well then think of it as practice.” Dean says simply. “I could pretty much coach you on conversation and confidence.”

“That’s a little big headed of you don’t you think?” Castiel asks chuckling. “Besides, I don’t think you can just coach someone on how to be confident.”

“Sure you can. And I will.” Dean says shrugging and smiles widely. “Come on Cas please?” Dean draws out the please in a long whine that makes Castiel smile despite himself.

“Fine.”

Dean throws his fist in the air with a hissed “Yes!” and starts blabbering on about how much fun their trip is going to be and how great Ash and Kevin are. To Castiels knowledge it seems the only people that will be going on the trip will be himself, Charlie, Dean and Kevin and Ash, apparently Meg and Balthazar have plans to go see family during the break.

When Castiel finally gets home, the sun has already started to set and he feels bad for showing up so late, but he’s sure that Gabriel won’t mind too much as long as he’s home. Dean had offered him a ride home, a gesture that Castiel is always really grateful for. He can’t stand the bus and at this time of day it was bound to be packed with people, all sweaty and irritable from a long days work.

Dean pulls his monster of a car into Castiels driveway and shuts off the engine. It’s become somewhat of an intriguing site for Castiel, the way Dean is with his car; running his hand along the steering wheel with a small smile as he drives, and then over the cars body whenever he’s even near the thing, it’s easy to see that it’s one of his prized possessions.

“Thanks.” Castiel mutters with a small smile as he unbuckles his safety belt. “So I guess I’ll see you on Sunday morning then?”

Dean smiles and waggles his eyebrows. “Yeah, we’re gonna be rich by the end of Sunday buddy.”

Castiel snorts and opens his door. “I’m not sure rich is the right word.”

“For students, it is.” Dean retorts. “I’ll be here early though, about seven okay?”

Castiel nods as he slides out of the car. He leans his head through the door and smiles at Dean. “Bye Dean.”

Dean raises an eyebrow, almost as if he’s confused by Castiels expression, but then he smiles back brightly and starts the car. “Catcha later Cas.”

Castiel closes the door and watches Dean rumble away down the road until he can’t see the car anymore and then heads inside. He’s still not happy about the job on Sunday, he’s almost certain he’s not going to be very good at it and his stomach is twisting with nervous energy already. He tries to calm himself down as he walks up the driveway towards the house and tells himself that he’s still got a lot of time before Sunday to relax.

As soon as he opens the door he’s hit with the awful smell of something burning and the annoying beeping of the fire alarm. He scrunches up his nose and heads straight to the kitchen where he just knows it’s coming from.

“Gabriel?” He says turning the corner, and getting a face full of smoke.

He coughs and waves his hand in front of his face, trying to clear the smoke away. “Gabriel, what did you do?” He asks loudly half running to the oven where Gabriel is frantically waving a dish towel trying to get the smoke under control and cursing loudly.

“Little bro!” Gabriel exclaims and walks over to Castiel, hugging him casually as if the smoke isn’t a problem at all. “Oh this?” He says innocently pointing a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the oven.

Castiel nods and starts coughing as he breathes in more of the smoke.

“Not to worry. All under control here.” Gabriel says with a wide smile, heading back to examine the contents of the stove. “Although… I think we may be having take out tonight.”

Apparently what Gabriel was trying to make was some sort of pot roast, but had left it in the oven almost 45 minutes longer than it was supposed to be in for, claiming that he had fallen asleep in his bubble bath.

Once they manage to dispose of the charred remains of the meat and clear out all the smoke in the kitchen, they decide to just order pizza and sit in front of the tv. They come to a mutual agreement on Battle Creek and settle lazily on the couch.

They’re about half way through their pizza when Castiel eventually gets up the courage to speak to Gabriel about the trip.

“Gabriel?” He says softly, glancing over at his brother.

“Mmm?” Gabriel hums as he tries to collect the strands of cheese hanging between himself and his pizza slice.

“Is it alright if I go on a trip this coming break? A road trip. It’s with Dean and a couple of other friends and you won’t have to pay for anything because I’m going to get the money myself from a promotions job I’m doing with Dean on Sunday morning for some new energy drink and I think we’ll be gone for like a week, maybe a little more and I-.”

“Whoa, whoa, Cassie slow down!” Gabriel cuts in, putting his pizza slice back in the box and turning to stare at Castiel.

Castiel stops dead feeling a little embarrassed and presses his lips in a thin line as he waits for Gabriel to say something.

“Did you call Luci today?” Gabriel asks raising an eyebrow

Castiel frowns at the question. He expected something about the trip not about Lucifer, what does he have to do with anything? “No?”

Gabriel sighs and runs his hand through his hair. “Cas, I really don’t mind if you go on this trip, Dean seems responsible enough, even if I don’t know the others, at least there’s one person there I can trust with you.”

Castiel smiles enthusiastically as Gabriel carries on. “But.” Gabriel pauses, raising his eyebrows at Castiel. “Lucifer has a say in this too, you know that. Yeah you don’t live with him, but you’re both of our responsibility and you need to make sure it’s alright with him too.”

Castiel frowns and his enthusiasm plummets instantly. Gabriel might as well just say no and get it over with since that’s going to be Lucifers answer anyway. Their older brother wasn’t exactly one for fun and good times, his own or anyone else’s for that matter and to make it worse, Castiel hasn’t spoken to him since last week and that was more of a passing pleasantry than an actual conversation.

 “He’s going to say no.” Castiel remarks bitterly.

“You don’t know that Cassie.”

“He doesn’t even like me that much, why would he care about me wanting to do something fun for once?” Castiel continues to mumble bitterly. He knows he must sound like a petulant child, but it was all he could do to not scream about having to ask Lucifer for something.

“He’s your brother Castiel, he loves you.” Gabriel says sternly, causing Castiel to flinch at hearing his brother use his full name. “He cares for you a lot, it’s just that he cares… differently to the way other people do.”

Castiel snorts at the comment. “Isn’t that the statement of the year.”

“Just ask him Cassie.” Gabriel continues more gently. “I promise I’ll kick his ass if he gives you a hard time about it, but please just at least take it up with him?”

Castiel looks up at Gabriels pleading face and sighs. He’s left feeling bad for his brother for the third time that day and he’s starting to think he should really start being a better brother to him and not getting him caught up in his and Lucifers feud.

“I’ll speak to him tomorrow.” Castiel sighs, running a hand over his eyes in defeat.

Gabriel smiles triumphantly “Excellent” He sings and goes back to his pizza box to recover the slice he had abandoned earlier and turns his attention back to the tv.  “Now shut up, I wanna see if these two finally do the dirty this episode.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks again to everyone for reading and leaving kudos!  
> The story should start picking up in the next few chapters.  
> I have pretty big plans for the story and I'm excited to share :)!  
> thanks again guys!
> 
> ****Also****  
> The next chapter is taking its time due to laptop issues. BUT I am getting a new one tomorrow (4th) so the new chapter should be up soon after that! :D. Yay!!!


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dean and Castiel work the Sunday Market.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took me forever to get out. My bad. Uni is hectic (o_o) and I'm stressing my ass off!  
> Once again, if anyone spots any problems, please let me know!

Castiel doesn’t call Lucifer.

He thinks about it a couple of times throughout Saturday and even manages to bring up Lucifers number on his phone with the intention of pressing the little green call button, but it never happens. He procrastinates so well that he actually gets a good amount of school work done whilst trying to distract himself.

He wants to make Gabriel happy and call Lucifer and ask him about the trip, but at the same time he knows that Lucifer isn’t going to be thrilled about it. For some reason he’s never really thrilled when Castiel wants to do something even moderately fun. Unless it involves school then Lucifer pretty much thinks that everything else is a waste of time and an unnecessary distraction.

He also convinces himself that asking over the phone isn’t even a good idea anyway. If he was going to ask his older brother for anything, it would be in person so that he could make his case properly and somehow convince Lucifer that it wouldn’t be such a bad idea. Lucifer would be able to see Castiels want clear on his face and even though Lucifer is as bad with emotions as Castiel is (if not worse), it may make _some_ difference. That and it wouldn’t hurt to have Gabriel sitting somewhere to back him up.

Castiel doesn’t tell anyone however that he would rather speak to Lucifer in person, he doesn’t want to invite him over and waste his time just to speak to him about a trip. Instead he’ll wait until his older brother decides to come for another one of his impromptu dinner visits and then they’ll speak about it.

Castiel breathes in a deep calming breath and runs his eyes over the mountains of work spread out on his work desk in front of him. He’d never thought that English studies would have been such a pain. The subject is not necessarily hard, it’s just a lot and he’s even wondering if it would be smart to work tomorrow instead of getting through some of the school work he knows he needs to finish.

He stops the thought short and shakes his head at himself. He won’t make excuses for not working tomorrow, no matter how nervous or anxious he is about it. Dean had been kind enough to organize this for the both of them and there was no way he was going to let him down. That and the fact that Castiel really doesn’t _want_ to let Dean down, it’s exactly the opposite and he feels he would forever hate himself if he didn’t at least try to push through tomorrow.

All in all his Saturday moves along at a steady pace of work, lunch, work and then dinner. He doesn’t see Gabriel for most of the day because he’s out with a woman he met at work. Her name is Kali and Castiel has been hearing all about how she’s been giving Gabriel hell at work and how much she frustrates him and now, they’re going on a date. Castiel thinks it’ll be good for him though, anyone that can put Gabriel in his place will definitely earn a spot as one of Castiels favourite people.

He’s just settling down on the couch with a bowl of Raman when Gabriel finally saunters through the door, with a head-in-the-clouds type expression on his face. Castiel stares back at the clock behind him to see that it’s already eight in the evening; meaning Gabriel had somehow managed to keep Kali hanging on since lunch time.

Castiel raises his eyebrows at his brothers curious expression. “I assume it went well then?”

Gabriel shuffles slowly towards the couch and plops down heavily with a sigh. “She’s infuriating.” He says with the same dreamlike expression, a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “I’m going to marry that woman Cas.”

Castiel huffs out a laugh and shakes his head. “Of course only you would find that sort of thing endearing Gabriel.”

“I’m seeing her again tomorrow for breakfast.” Gabriel chuckles with an incredulous look on his face, as if he’s only realizing his luck now. “She’s clearly fallen for me Cassie.”

Castiel chuckles and picks at his noodles with his fork. “They always do.”

Gabriel goes quiet after that and Castiel starts to wonder if what he said had been inappropriate. He glances up awkwardly and tries to think of what he should be saying next but he feels like an idiot already and thinks he’ll probably only end up digging himself a bigger grave.

“I do _really_ like her Cassie.” Gabriel mumbles as he stares down at his hands in his lap.

Castiel looks over at him and notices just how small Gabriel seems right now, he still has that happy air about him, but something in his posture makes him seem worried and unsure. Castiel gives him a gentle smile. “I’m glad Gabriel.”

Gabriel looks up at Castiel and returns the smile, before quickly shifting his gaze back to his hands and snorting. “You’re doing the mushy thing again Cassie. It’s a silly look for someone with such a serious face.”

Castiel pouts mockingly at his brother and they both laugh quietly. Gabriel finally finding someone he thinks he can be with is a huge thing. Castiel isn’t stupid, he knows one of the reasons Gabriel hasn’t dated in a while is because of previous incidents involving girlfriends saying they wanted to move in and be with Gabriel. _Only_ Gabriel.

Castiel had never liked any of Gabriels girlfriends, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t feel bad for being a factor in his older brothers unsuccessful relationships. He’s heard the fights when Gabriel has thought he had his earphones in or when he was in the shower and everyone had assumed he couldn’t hear. The worst was once when he had heard Gabriel say that he and Samantha (his girlfriend at the time) should stay home instead of going out, to keep Castiel company.

He had hated hearing that, like he was some small, wounded animal that couldn’t handle being alone for too long. He doesn’t blame Gabriel for thinking that way though, especially since he does spend most of his time alone and perhaps at the time it had been worrying to his big brother, but he _likes_ to be alone.

Castiel shakes his head of the old hurt that clings to him and musters up a smile as Gabriel talks about his date with Kali. Eventually Castiel is smiling brightly at his brothers explanations of Kali and thinks he would very much like to meet the woman that has his cocky brother so flustered and almost embarrassingly giddy. He’s never seen him like this and it makes Castiels chest constrict.

At about ten Castiel excuses himself for bed. Gabriel teases him about being an old man and going to bed so early on a Saturday night, but Castiel wants to get a good amount of rest for tomorrow. He showers and puts on a shirt and boxers and slides into bed. He picks up his phone from the side table, completely having forgotten about it the whole day. He has a few messages from Dean and one from Meg.

**Meg: Alt-J- Something Good. I think you’ll like it angel boy _._**

Castiel rolls his eyes but immediately goes into his notes app on his phone and adds it to a list he’s started of the songs he needs to either download or listen to. Meg has been sending him recommendations almost every day and despite what Dean says about the music she listens to, Castiel finds that he actually likes it.

**Dean: Who’s ready to sell some caffeine packed carbonated drinks tomorrow?!**

**Dean: ?**

**Dean: Dude?**

**Dean: Cas quickly a truck overturned on the freeway on its way to a super nerd convention and there’s old ass books everywhere!**

**Dean: Seriously? Nothin?**

Castiel snorts at the messages. The messages are all from about four hours ago and he feels a bit guilty for not replying sooner. 

**Castiel: I think you would enjoy this “super nerd convention” more than I would… Impalawarrior79 ;)**.

It only takes Dean a minute or two to reply and Castiel smiles down at his phone when it pings.

**Dean: I told you that shit in confidence!**

**Dean: But seriously I kicked some major butt today and got myself a Drakeadon!**

**Castiel: I have no idea what that means.**

**Dean: Yeah you’re obviously a whole other different species of nerd.**

**Dean: You all good for tomorrow? I promise to make it bearable for you.**

Castiels gut clenches and he swallows heavily. Why did he have to be so nervous about everything? He sighs and rubs at his eyes tiredly.

**Castiel: 7 right?**

**Dean: Yup _._**

**Castiel: See you then. Night Dean :)**

**Dean: Night Cas.**

 

* * *

 

When Castiels alarm goes off what feels like only minutes later, he has already accepted the fact that he was probably going to be a grump this morning. He had set his alarm for six thirty and even though that really isn’t the earliest he’s ever woken up, it still doesn't feel too great. He takes a moment to appreciate that its summer and he didn’t have to deal with waking up early _and_ having to deal with the cold as well.

He drags himself out of bed feet first and settles on a sort of sitting position with his lower half seated on the edge of the bed and his head still resting on his pillow. He groans loudly and pushes his face deeply back into the pillow and moans even louder into it.

“Don’t wanna.” He mumbles to himself. “Stupid Dean.”

He pulls his head quickly from the pillow and gets up with a huff to stand in front of his cupboard to survey his clothing choices while he continues to grumble unhappily.

“Stupid job. Stupid road trip. Stupid, insufferable cupboard with nothing to wear.” He says swinging the door closed and skulking off to the bathroom to shower.

He stands under the warm spray not even washing for about five minutes before he remembers he still needs to find clothes and get dressed too. He scrubs at his body quickly and uses the scented soap he reserves for when he goes out. He remembers Dean saying that he had liked the way it smelled, but that’s obviously not the reason he’s using it. He just doesn’t want to repel any potential customers with bad body odor.

It takes him another five minutes and then he’s back to standing in front of his cupboard staring at his options with his towel slung around his waist.

“This is ridiculous.” He sighs.

He grabs a pair of dark jeans that he knows don’t look too bad on him and they’re comfortable enough that he can walk around in them the whole day and not get an uncomfortable jean chaff or something equally as unpleasant. He tugs the jeans on and starts rifling through his shirts for a couple of minutes. He stops dead when he remembers Dean telling him that they would be given shirts with the product name on it when they got there anyway.

He feels both relieved at that and annoyed with himself for having spent so much time looking for a shirt. It's just then that he hears a buzzing noise and turns in the direction of his bedside table where his phone is ringing and quickly shuffles over to it.

“Hello?” He croaks out, still sounding a bit groggy.

“Woah. I hope you’re not still sleeping.” Dean jokes on the other end, but Castiel can hear slight concern in his voice too.

“I am not.” Castiel bites back defensively.

Dean just chuckles. “Alright, well then get your butt outside, you’re late already.”

Castiel snaps his head back to his clock next to the bed and is surprised to see that it’s already five past seven and he has kept Dean waiting without an apology or an explanation. “Shit. I’m coming!” he breathes out, rushing to his cupboard and grabbing whatever shirt was lying on top of the pile.

“Cas did you just cuss? That’s not very-.” Castiel hangs up before Dean gets a chance to finish and rushes through his bedroom grabbing the nearest pair of shoes and a pair of socks and runs through the house, making a detour through the kitchen to grab one of Gabriels cookies sitting in a jar on the table. His brother isn't going to be very happy that he stole one of his cookies but Castiel doesn't exactly have time for anything else.

Holding the cookie in between his teeth and his jacket in his arms along with his phone, shoes and socks he scurries out the door in record time.

He realizes what he must look like when he eventually drops down into Deans monster car. His hair is wild, he’s still busy trying to pull down his shirt properly, the cookie is still sitting between his teeth and he’s barefoot. He glances at Dean out of the corner of his eye and spots the amused smirk he was expecting. He takes the cookie out of his mouth and smooths out his shirt while lifting his nose in the air.

“Not a word.” He says quietly, reaching for his shoes and socks.

“I would never.” Dean says smiling mockingly and running his eyes up and down Castiel.

“Good.” Castiel mumbles at the floor of the car as he finishes putting on his shoes. When he looks back up, Dean is still staring at him with an amused smile and it makes Castiel relax slightly.

“Well?” He asks, raising his eyebrows at Dean and gesturing to the road. “Are we going?”

Dean blinks at him and quickly starts the car. “Ah, yeah. Yeah let’s get going then.”

They don't talk much on the drive there, well Castiel doesn't speak much. He's still nervous and his gut is twisting in knots as he thinks about all the people he's going to be dealing with today. Dean is either oblivious to Castiels inner turmoil or thinks it would just be best to try to distract him. Mostly he speaks about his brother Sam and how happy he was to see him acting like 'such a little gentleman' when his friend Jess had come over on Friday night. Not that Dean had expected his brother to act any other way as according to him, Sam has always been the more polite one out of the two of them. Castiel doesn't argue with that and actually lets slip a snarky comment about that probably being true. Dean doesn't get offended by it though, it's like they've started to get used to the fact that they both have horrible filters when it comes to conversation and that's not something that's bound to change anytime soon.

They pull into the Sunday market at just after seven thirty and Dean leads Castiel through all the stalls trying to remember where he was told theirs would be. Dean stops at almost every single food stall and salivates over the barest of ingredients set out, since none of the stalls have actually started to cook yet and that's all that he can really see so far.

That doesn't stop Dean from grabbing Castiel by the hand and dragging him over to a burger stall and commenting on all the ingredients set out and explaining what spices he would have used if he was making them and how perfectly he would cook them, so it's as if the meat is just melting in your mouth.

“I'll make some for you! You'll love it I promise. Maybe during vacation?” Dean says excitedly, still slightly bent down over the table and running his eyes over all the loose ingredients.

It's not even surprising to Castiel how great that actually sounds to him and unlike previous times when Dean has mentioned possibly doing something with Castiel outside of school work and assignments, he doesn't try to stamp down the excitement that grows inside him. Instead he smiles down at Dean and allows his excitement to show in his words. “That sounds great Dean.”

Dean glances up at Castiel with an expression Castiel can't quite seem to place and he's worried that he may have come off a bit too sincere, which is not something one usually expects to be a problem, but lately he's been beyond careful with his words and emotions around Dean. He doesn't want Dean to think he wants more from their friendship if he isn't even sure himself if that is truly what he wants.

Okay, yes of course he wouldn't mind having something more with Dean but what's really the problem is that he wouldn't know what to _do_ with more. He's never been that way with someone before and he doubts he would do the whole relationship thing properly. Not that he thinks that kind of thing would actually happen between him and Dean anyway. Dean wasn't interested in him that way anymore after they cleared everything up, he's sure of it.

A smile spreads over Deans face and he straightens up and claps his hand on Castiels shoulder, bring him out of his head and back to the moment. “Awesome, I'll ruin you for all other burgers and you'll either hate me or worship me for the rest of your life.”

He says with a wink and then checks his watch. “Oh shit! We're kinda running a bit late. Ellen may just kill me.”

He grabs at Castiel again, this time grabbing the bottom of his shirt and dragging him quickly past a few more stalls before they eventually come to the stall they would be working at. Dean lets go of Castiels shirt and walks almost carefully to the woman unpacking and sorting through boxes and drinks behind the stall counter with her back to them.

“Hey anyone here order a couple of Greek gods?” He says poking her in the ribs from behind.

The woman turns around a narrows her eyes at him. “Well I was beginning to think I hadn't. Nice of you to actually show up.” The woman folds her arms across her chest and raises an eyebrow.

“Yeah we got lost.” Dean replies sheepishly.

“You're a bad liar Winchester.” The woman (whom Castiel assumes must be Ellen) says, breaking into a smile and shaking her head.

Dean chuckles and pulls her into a tight hug.

Castiel thinks they obviously know each other from way back. They seem very comfortable with one another and he starts to think that maybe they're family. They look sort of similar, maybe slightly different when it came to hair colour but other than that they seem very alike. Perhaps an aunt? Or a cousin? Or maybe it was just the mannerisms that made them seem similar.

“And you must be Cas then?” She says walking over to him, hand extended.

Castiel smiles shyly and takes her hand. She has a firm handshake, it's sure and unwavering and it just makes Castiel believe even more so that she and Dean are related. “Yes ma'am, thank you very much for this.”

“Oh please don't call me ma'am, I'm not that old yet. Ellen, please.”

Castiel nods curtly. “Ellen then.”

“Cas is a little nervous about today.” Dean remarks from the counter top he's decided to perch himself on.

Castiel glares at him. Ellen didn't need to know he was nervous, he's sure that she wouldn't exactly want a nervous salesman working for her.

“Oh Sweetie, don't be worried. You're perfect. Gonna grab a lot of attention for my product, I guarantee it.”

Castiel looks at the ground and shuffles his feet shyly. “Uhm, thank you?”

Ellen just laughs and walks away from him to behind the counter to grab something. She pulls out what seems to be two backpacks shaped and made to look like soda cans. Or more accurately, the cans of the energy drink they would be selling. Ellen holds them up so that dean and Castiel can see them.

“Okay, so you're going to be carrying these. They're basically cooler bags and you'll put a couple of drinks each into your bags. Once you've sold the amount in the bag, you come back, mark down that you've sold a bags worth and collect more. You'll get commission for every bag you sell added to the amount I'm already paying you.”

Dean gives Ellen a toothy grin and his eyes widen in excitement. “Seriously? Since when?”

Ellen smiles back and tosses Dean a bag and then tosses the other one at Castiel.

“Since Jo thought it would give you more encouragement to sell the crap outta this stuff.”

“Thank you very much Ellen. You don't have to do that though.” Castiel says softly.

Ellen glances at Castiel with a raised eyebrow and smirks “The girls are gonna eat you up baby.”

Castiel snaps his head up and can feel his face heating up drastically as he stares back at Ellen. Hopefully the blush he's feeling isn't actually showing on his face. It's a hot morning, perhaps he can blame it on the sun and being incredibly sensitive to heat.

He hears Dean chuckle from the other side of the counter where he's moved to pack the drinks into his bag. “And the boys.”

Ellen snorts and gestures for Castiel to follow her behind the stall to where Dean is and helps him pack his cooler bag and gets them both promotional t-shirts. Castiel sighs when he sees that they're black with blue writing, matching the drink cans. He's definitely going to die of heat stroke today.

Dean removes his shirt quickly to put the other one on and Castiel can't help but glance cautiously in his direction as he removes his own shirt slowly, suddenly feeling incredibly insecure.

Dean however doesn't seem the least bit insecure about his body, even going so far as to smirk when he catches Castiel staring.

Castiel blushes for what seems like the one hundredth time that morning and stares down at the shirt in his hands. He keeps his arms as close his body as possible while trying to open the shirt up, hoping that he's being successful in hiding at least some of himself. He fumbles with the shirt a few times because he's trying to get it on so quickly and the hem keeps slipping out his hands causing him to growl at it in frustration.

Then Dean is suddenly next to him, shirt on and ruffling Castiels hair. “Having a little trouble there Cas?”

Castiel doesn't look up at him, eventually getting his arms through both holes in the shirt. “I'm fine thank you.” He grumbles as he pulls the shirt over his head and runs his fingers through his hair. It's probably looking even more unkempt than it had when he woke up this morning, which is definitely saying something.

When he looks up at Dean, he notices him avert his eyes quickly and start to fiddle with the cooler bag straps over his shoulders. Castiel narrows his eyes suspiciously as he grabs his own bag off of the floor and secures it onto his back.

Dean stares out across the market, smiles and then looks back at Castiel excitedly. “Alright Cas. Lets get our sale on!”

“Get our sale on?” Castiel asks pulling his eyebrows together in a frown.

“Whatever.” Dean says waving Castiel off. “Lets just make a shit load of money!”

Dean raises his right hand in the air above his head and smiles expectantly at Castiel, but Castiels frown just deepens as he stares at the outstretched hand.

“Cas, dude. High five. I'll look like an idiot if you don't.”

Castiel snorts “You don't need me for that.”

Dean drops his hand instantly and pouts dramatically. “No high fives for you then! Ever!”

Dean has turned to walk away when Castiel chuckles and grabs him by his shoulder, turning Dean around to face him. Dean narrows his eyes at Castiel but breaks into a goofy grin when he notices Castiel lift his hand to chest height and raises his eyebrows.

Dean instantly lifts his own hand and claps Castiels hand with a loud *smack* and turns back in the direction of the market and points ahead of them.

“Lets do this!”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so they're technically not working the market yet in this chapter... It ended up being a little longer than I had intended. 
> 
> Any suggestions or comments are welcome too :).  
> Have a great one guys!


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Castiel and Dean selling at the market and Castiel finally speaks to Lucifer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay this chapter is kinda longer than expected but it's taken me a while to update so I guess it should be??  
> Anyway, enjoy!

Dean and Castiel walk slowly between the stalls, trying to get their bearings and map out a game plan. Castiel had thought they should mostly just hang around the food courts, since that's where he expected most of their potential buyers would come from.

Dean however had totally disagreed and had reminded Castiel rather condescendingly that they were selling an _energy_ drink and not soda. He then suggested that what they actually needed to do was start with the stall owners. Considering it was still early and there really isn't many people at the market so far besides from the people actually running the show.

The people running the stalls were also mostly college students trying to make money just like the two of them were. Most of them, Dean pointed out, even looked pretty hungover from the Saturday night before, which meant that they would probably be needing what Dean had referred to as a “pick-me-up”.

Castiel finds it really hard to argue with Deans logic so they agree to start with the stall owners.

They walk until Dean spots a pretty brunette unpacking various pieces of jewelery onto displays on the counter. She looks incredibly exhausted and about ready to throw whatever she's packing out, at the first person who walks past.

“How about her?” Dean asks squinting past the sunlight in his eyes at the girl.

Castiels mouth drops open and he gapes at him. “ _Her_?” Castiel spits out incredulously. Was Dean not seeing the same person he was? Perhaps there was a kinder looking girl behind the one he was currently looking at.

Dean shrugs and looks at Castiel as if he's slightly confused by Castiels reaction. “Yeah, why not?” 

Castiel huffs and shakes his head. “Dean. She looks like she would rip your head off if you spoke to her right now.”

Dean smiles not looking at Cas but at the girl and then hums. “Yeah she does.” 

He stalks off casually towards the stall leaving Castiel flabbergasted behind him. He doesn't stay that way for long though, there was no way he was going to miss out on Dean Winchester getting mauled by some random girl, he quickly scurries after him and they stop in front of the stall.

Dean leans casually on the table while the girl hurries around with her back towards them trying to set up. “Good morning ma am.” Dean says brightly to the girls back.

“Good morning.” the girl says quickly, with her back still turned. “Sorry I'll be with you in a moment I'm just trying to-.” The girl turns around to face them and any politeness she was reserving for potential customers instantly drops out of her voice when she sees their uniforms. “Ah yeah, sorry. Not interested. Thanks”

Dean pouts playfully at her as she continues to unpack. “Aw, don't be like that. Come on, help a guy make his first sale?”

The girl smirks and shakes her head, unpacking the necklaces and hanging them on the display hangers. “What, do you think you can just bat your eye lashes and I'll buy from you? You promotion guys really do think a lot of yourselves.” 

Castiel raises an eyebrow in amusement and glances at Dean, waiting for him to come up with some smart ass comment and somehow pull off the sale. He doesn't see how though, this girl obviously has a thing against the promotions guys and Castiel thinks that it's probably because she has to deal with them every time she works (assuming she works at the market often). 

He moves his gaze back to the necklaces and bracelets and notices some of the leather mens bracelets seem to have interesting symbols on them and he leans in closer to have a look and picks one up.

“Hebrew.” He mumbles, running his finger on the symbols engraved into the leather. He turns it around and sees that the clasp is an anchor that clips through a loop on the other end of the bracelet. “It says 'Hope' right?”

The girl looks up at Castiel with a frown and then she sees the bracelet in his hands and nods slowly. “Yeah, The woman that owns this stall likes stuff like that. The whole bracelet is basically just a play on some Bible verse.” The girl shrugs and stands in front of Castiel observing him curiously. “It's pretty cool looking though.”

Castiel just nods and turns the bracelet over in his fingers, it really does look pretty cool.

“Dude... you know Hebrew?” Dean scoffs next to him.

Castiel lifts his head and sees Deans face just above his, eyebrow raised.

Castiel smiles shyly. “Not exactly. I just find specific languages and the way they're written to be very interesting. Hebrew would be one of them. Basically all the Celtic languages would be another example.” Castiel shrugs, putting the bracelet back in it's place and smiling up at the girl. “I'm sorry we weren't able to convince you to buy a drink, perhaps later on you may change your mind?” Castiel smiles gently at her, not wanting to come off as pushy, but rather hopeful.

The girl seems a little flustered at first, perhaps not expecting a 'promotions guy' to be interested in ancient languages and also possibly because Castiel is really trying to turn on the charm and he may be gazing a little too strongly at her for a normal conversation.

“Oh, well yeah, I guess you could come back later.” She manages to stumble out, still looking slightly confused.

“Thank you.” Castiel says, smiling broadly while nudging Dean in the side as a gesture for them to leave. Dean throws him an incredulous look and seems just about ready to protest when the girl speaks up again.

“Or!” she says just a little too loudly and blushes, obviously having realised it. “I could maybe buy one now? I have a friend coming who's a total energy drink freak and she's not really a morning person, so I'm sure she'd be pretty happy to see it when she gets here.”

Castiel flashes Dean a very subtle but very smug look before turning around and smiling gratefully at the girl. “Really? Thank you! I'm glad to hear of your friends unhealthy taste for caffeinated beverages. Definitely helps us out.”

The girl giggles at Castiel whilst digging in her purse for change, but Castiel notices Dean rolling his eyes next to him and it makes Castiel mouth twitch in a quick smirk. He could have his charming and or corny moments too when he felt up to it.

The girl ends up buying two cans and hands Castiel the money, which he pockets in the small money pouch Ellen had given to them. “Thank you. I hope you have a good day...” Castiel draws out the sentence and tilts his head.

“Amelia.” The girl offers quickly and Castiel smiles.

“Amelia.” He says nodding a goodbye and pushing Dean to walk. They are barely even out of earshot when Dean turns to him with a accusatory look.

“What the hell was that?” He asks loudly, eyebrows raised.

Castiel smiles gently and carries on walking, eyes forward. “I think that's what you referred to as 'getting my sale on'.”

Dean snorts as he carries on glaring. “So much for being all shy and stuff. I bet that's all just some weird ruse you've gotten everyone to believe and secretly you're like... Some promiscuous secret agent or something.” Dean frowns at his own words, obviously he was trying to come up with something better but his mouth had run away with him again.

Castiel chuckles at the notion. Leave it to Dean to be dramatic about one conversation. The truth is though, that Castiel was incredibly nervous while he speaking to Amelia. His legs had been shaking slightly all of their own accord, he had noticed that his pulse had started to race and he had felt super self conscious. He had to physically stop himself from fidgeting with the straps of the back pack, or from wringing his fingers, he has no idea how Dean hadn't been able to sense his slight distress.

“You would tell me right? If you were some promiscuous secret agent?” Dean carries on, smiling bashfully despite trying to come off as cocky and teasing.

Castiel frowns and tilts his head slightly as he looks at Dean. “Now wouldn't telling you, defeat the whole purpose of me being a _secret_ agent?”

“Aha! So you admit it then!” Dean cries, pointing a finger in mock accusation in Castiels direction.

Castiel just smiles and shakes his head. At least he knows he can rely on Dean today to make things interesting.

“You caught me Dean. My name is Agent Krushnic. I am here to invade the college in order to suss the other spies that may be lurking around. So far, I can confirm that you are not one of them.”

Dean frowns “How can you be so sure?”

Castiel frowns back and looks Dean up and down mockingly. “I'm sure.”

“You're really in a mood today aren't you? Don't get me wrong though... I'm enjoying it. Lets see who else you can screw out of some money today!” Dean carries on excitedly, picking up his pace and heading straight towards another stall. “But when I say screw, I don't mean that literally. You know, with you being a frisky agent and all.”

Castiel rolls his eyes and picks up his own pace to catch up to Dean. “I feel like you're forcing me into some sort of secret agent fantasy of yours.”

Dean smiles that predatory smile Castiel has only ever seen from him once before. “And what if I am?”

Castiel never does get to comment on that, before Dean drags him by the arm to stall after stall after stall trying to make sales. Castiel isn't nearly as confident as he was earlier which is fine because Dean makes most of their sales easily. Dean had made the decision for both of them that they would just sell both bags together and split the money in half at the end of the day, which Castiel thinks is overly generous of him, considering he had basically been making all the money out of the two them.

Castiel does manage to get a few of the older generation to buy a few, probably because most of them were completely thrown by how polite he was in his sales pitch. Dean had teased him about being jail bait, while at the same time encouraging him to look as innocent as possible whilst trying to make sales to the local “cougars”.

They are heading towards the end of their day and have already worked through two bags each during the day, which Ellen had found pretty unbelievable and had accused them multiple times of hiding the drinks somewhere and pick pocketing strangers for the cash.

Castiel had decided that morning already that he really liked Ellen. She was playful but firm at the same time, pulling off the perfect mom vibe that Castiel can't help but appreciate. He doesn't really get that kind of vibe around him a lot anymore, mostly it's just him and his brothers and perhaps Anna from time to time, but she hasn't ever had any sort of maternal air about her that he's ever noticed.

Dean had explained to Castiel that Ellen isn't actually related to him, she's actually one of their mothers closest friends, but she had definitely wormed her way into the family and had become a second mother figure for him and his brother.

They are just heading back to their own stall to cash out for the day when they hear a voice calling from behind them.

“Dean! Hey wait up!” Castiel and Dean both turn around to face the voice and Castiel is temporarily thrown off by the beautiful sandy blonde woman walking towards them. “ Yoohoo!” She carries on, waving her arm back and forth. She's wearing a large pair of sunglasses that are covering more than half of her face, but Castiel can still tell that she is very beautiful. She seems to have legs that go on for decades and he almost swears he caught the hint of an accent.

The woman catches up to them and Castiel notices Dean has gone a little bit rigid, but besides that, he seems pleasantly surprised to see her.

“I thought you were going to make me run.” The woman huffs out, raising her glasses to the top of her head.

Definitely British. Castiel confirms, hearing her speak properly this time. He has a silly thought about whether she and Balthazar possibly know each other, but shakes the ignorant thought from his head immediately. Just because they're both British does not mean they happen to know each other.

“Bela, hey!” Dean says plastering on his most charming smile and pulling 'Bela' in for a hug. She seems to hold on a little longer than is necessary though and Castiel gets a small tingling feeling in the back of his head as he watches her slide her hand to Deans waist as they pull apart.

She finally turns her attention to Castiel then, who has been standing behind them, wondering if he should be introducing himself or not.

“And who have we here?” She says looking Castiel up and down and smiling pleasantly at him.

“Oh! Right, sorry.” Dean says, seeming a little flustered. “Bela this is Castiel- Cas. Cas, this is Bela, we're, ah old friends.”

Bela tilts her head at the last bit and looks at Dean with an amused expression before turning back to Castiel and extending her hand. “Pleasure to meet you Cas. I think Dean actually might have mentioned you before.”

Castiel doesn't hide his surprise as he shakes her hand and glances over at Dean, who now seems to be trying to glare a hole through Belas head. “Really? I hope it wasn't as bad as what he says to my face.” Castiel jokes, smirking at Deans heated expression.

Bela laughs elegantly and pushes Dean shoulder lightly. “Oh, just something about you two partying together or something of the sorts.”

_Oh_ .

Castiel only has one guess to what that means and his face starts to feel a little warm and he's certain that he sees the hint of a smirk on Bela's face.

“Alright, well it was great seeing you Bel, but we kinda gotta go before Ellen has our heads.” Dean says quickly, trying to move in for a quick hug goodbye but Bela leans back and pouts at him. 

“Really? But it feels like it's been ages since I've seen you?” 

Castiel had thought she was being playful at first, but she is starting to seem genuinely hurt by Dean brushing her off so quickly. He looks between the two of them and tries to think about what kind of dynamic the two have. He doesn't need to think for very long though, it doesn't exactly take a rocket scientist to guess that the two either have or had  _ something  _ going on _.  _ Castiel feels that small tingling feeling in the back of his mind again and tries to brush it away quickly before it grows more prominent. 

“Yeah I know. I'm sorry about that. I've just... been busy is all.” Dean says shyly, rubbing his hand at the back of his neck, something Castiel has started to notice he does when he seems anxious.

Belas eyes flick over briefly to Castiel and she raises an eyebrow at Dean. “I can see that.” 

Castiel tilts his head and frowns at her. What had that look been for? What exactly was she trying to imply? If it was what Castiel thought it meant, well then that was almost laughable considering all they had been doing was school work and he has to stop himself from making any snarky commentary. Although he does find himself wishing that her accusatory attitude had been correct . 

Dean doesn't say anything for a couple of seconds and just frowns at her, obviously not liking the tone she had taken either. “I'll call later alright?” He says raising his eyebrows at her and pulling her in for a quick hug. 

“Yeah, yeah. Don't do a girl any favours Winchester.” Bela sighs, bringing her glasses back over her face and turning to smile at Castiel one last time. “It was nice meeting you Castiel.” 

“Ah yeah you to-.” He's not sure if she heard him though, because she had strode off rather quickly in the opposite direction while he was still speaking. Castiel finds it rather rude of her but he doesn't say anything, picking up on the slight tension rolling off of Deans shoulders. He glances up at the other man and smiles gently.

“She seems pleasant.” It's a half truth, honestly he hadn't really said enough to her to gain anything more than subtle annoyance with Dean but she had kept that mostly under wraps. 

Dean chuckles and turns around to start walking back to the stall again. “She is actually. I just suck keeping contact.” 

Castiel just nods but doesn't say anything further. If he had, it would have been something to do with the fact that he and Dean have been sending text messages to each other almost daily and it doesn't seem as if Dean has any problems with keeping contact from what he can tell. But he doesn't say that, he doesn't want to be the one to stir the pot. The realization does make his chest flutter a little though and a secret smile begins to work it's way onto his lips as they walk. 

They get to the stall about five minutes later and hand the empty bags back to Ellen, both f them feeling pretty proud of themselves for having sold what Ellen keeps referring to as a 'ridiculous amount'.

“If you boys ever need some more pocket money, you're welcome to work for me again.” She comments as she starts to pack away the various items around the stall. “You did really well. Thanks.” She turns to smile at each of them and then hugs them tightly in goodbye. The gesture catches Castiel by surprise at first, but whats even more surprising is how quickly he reciprocates the hug. When the hug is over, Castiel is blushing lightly at his own over enthusiasm but Ellen just runs her hand down his arm and winks reassuringly at him.

Dean seems over the moon on the drive back to Castiels place, with the amount of money they made, claiming that it was enough to be able to afford the road trip with some to spare. 

“I can't wait! It's only a few days away but it feels like time is draggin' ass!” Deans excitement is almost tangible as he speaks about the trip and Castiel can't hold back his smile. Castiel can't help it, he just seems to like this look on Dean more than he probably should. 

“You've sorted everything out on your end right?” Dean asks, still smiling like a child on Christmas day.

Castiel shuffles guiltily in his seat at the questioning. He still hasn't actually sorted anything out beyond having the money and letting Gabriel know, which in any other household may be enough, but unfortunately for Castiel, the person in his family that holds the swing vote is a little harder to crack than most. 

“Uhm, yes.” He croaks nervously and then clears his throat and tries again. “Everything is sorted.” He flinches at his own obviousness and glances at Dean out of the corner of his eye just in time to see him frown.

“What was that?” Dean asks slowly.

“What was what?” Castiel asks blankly, hoping he sounds more convincing that way than if he actually tried to fake innocence. 

“Don't bullshit me.” 

Well so much for that.

“That look, that whole attitude. What's up with that? You're still coming aren't you?” Dean is starting to sound a bit worried and perhaps even a little disappointed at the possibility of Castiel not going on the trip and he would be lying to himself if he it didn't make him feel at least a little bit giddy.

“I just... I just need to sort a few things out with my brother.” Castiel admits sheepishly. He hasn't told Dean his whole situation yet, both his living situation and his school situation and he doesn't exactly want to discuss all of that on the short ride home now either, so he carries on before Dean can ask any further.

“I will be coming though.” Castiel says it softly. He shouldn't be so confident about that but he's willing to fight Lucifer on the subject if necessary, he feels that he's earned the right to a vacation after all the hard work he's put in at school. 

Dean sighs and purses his lips. “Yeah, okay Cas. Just don't be one of those people that pull out of plans at the last minute.”

Castiel glares over at Dean at the comment. It had seemed rather rude considering he's never given Dean any indication of being that type of person to start off with, but he doesn't say anything. Instead he decides to stew in his own irritation.

It takes a few minutes of awkward and tense silence before either one of them speaks up again and unsurprisingly it's Dean, since Castiel is a tad more stubborn and is still tending his wounds after taking Deans last comment too seriously.

“I just-.” Dean scrunches up his nose as he seems to be trying to figure what he's going to say and then he rolls his eyes as if giving in. “I just think it would be really awesome if you came with is all.” 

Castiels eyes widen and he turns to fix Dean with what must be a rather silly look of surprise. Dean must think the same, because when he looks over at Castiel and notices his expression he snorts a laugh and shakes his head. 

“Yeah, yeah, big deal, I actually want you to come. Get over it.” 

Castiels expression shifts from surprise to exasperated amusement at the typically 'Dean' response. “And I am really looking forward to going.” There it is again. The absolute confidence he shouldn't really be letting himself feel before speaking to his brother, but after Deans words, there is no way that he is not going now.

Deans lip quirks up in a small smile and they're quiet again as he concentrates on the road. 

By they time the reach Castiels driveway, the sun has already started to set, but that doesn't impair Castiels visual of the car in the driveway. 

The black Mercedes is like a stab to the heart of Castiels good day and mood. 

Lucifer. Damnit. 

Castiel groans as Dean pulls the car into the driveway and rubs at his eyes. He's beyond tired at this point and the last person he really wanted to see today was Lucifer. Granted, this may be the perfect time to speak to him about the trip, but that doesn't mean he's any more excited about this.

Dean whistles lowly from next to Castiel as he eyes the car in the driveway. “Damn. Who's is that?”

“My brothers.” Castiel mumbles as he gathers all of his stuff.

Dean raises his eyebrows “Dude, what does Gabriel do for a living?” 

“No.” Castiel says shaking his head lightly as he opens his door and starts to climb out. “My other brother, Lucifer.” 

Dean chuckles from inside the car and Castiel leans back inside to ask what exactly is so funny.

“I'm guessing you don't have a very good relationship with him if you call him that.” 

Castiel tilts his head in confusion and looks back on what he said, trying to figure out what Dean could mean by that, when it finally clicks and Castiel lets out a loud guffaw that makes Dean jump. 

“No...no Dean.” Castiel is still trying to contain himself while Dean just frowns confusedly back at him.

“Lucifer is his name. His real name.” Castiel breathes out, rubbing his eyes as a small tear escapes. 

He notices Dean flush slightly and he has to restrain himself from laughing even more at the expression.

“Who names their kid that?” Dean mumbles, eyes wide in surprise as he stares at the Mercedes.

“My parents wanted to be different.” Castiel shrugs, his cheeks hurting from smiling.

“Yeah no shit.” 

Castiel shakes his head and leans a little further back, getting ready to close the door. “Well, thank you Dean. I had fun.” 

“How many people get to say they had fun _working_?” Dean says smiling proudly up at Castiel. “You're lucky to have me, if you ask me.” 

“I would have to agree then.” Castiel says sincerely and the comment seems to catch Dean off guard because the cocky look on his face slips away.

“Ah, yeah, anyway. I'll see you at school tomorrow.” Dean fumbles, clearing his throat and tapping his hands on the steering wheel.

Castiel nods, closing the door and watching as Dean pulls slowly out of the driveway. 

“Have fun with Satan.” Dean calls out of the window as he takes off on the tar road. It makes Castiel flush and he just prays that the comment wasn't loud enough for Lucifer to actually hear. 

He walks slowly up the driveway and takes a deep breath as he opens the door, he always feels like he has to mentally prepare himself for Lucifer, the man has a real knack for making one feel inadequate really quickly. 

Gabriel is the first one he sees, his head poking out around the corner from the kitchen, his smile welcoming if not slightly strained. “Little bro hey!” He calls, rounding the corner with a dish cloth wrapped around his hand. 

Castiel eyes the dish cloth with a frown and tilts his head questioningly at his brother. 

Gabriels smile falters sightly as he follows Castiels gaze down to his own hand, as if he had forgotten about it. “Oh this?”Gabriel chuckles. “Yeah, note to self: stoves are hot. Who knew.” 

Castiel shakes his head and smirks up at his supposedly more responsible older brother. “Gabriel perhaps you should just stay out of the kitchen all together, before you seriously injure yourself.”

Gabriel returns the smirk and shakes his head in defiance. “Nah that's okay, Kali likes my battle scars.” Castiel chuckles softly while Gabriel glances towards the dining room behind them and leans conspiratorially towards Castiel. “You may want to have that little discussion with him now and don't give me some bull how you already have because I know you way too well Cassie.” 

Castiel doesn't argue with his brother, but he does feel embarrassed at being so transparent. “Is he at least in a good mood?” 

Gabriel snorts and waves a hand in Lucifers general direction. “Cassie, I've known the guy my whole life and it's still nearly impossible for me to tell. But yeah he does seem kinda chilled out I guess.”

That does manage to make feel a little better as he walks into the dinning room and sees Lucifer at the head of the table, wine glass raised to his lips. 

“Ah Castiel. It's nice to see you again.” His big brother comments casually, placing his wine back on the table and fixing Castiel with an emotionless expression. 

Castiel smiles stiffly back at him and moves to sit at his right at the dining table. “Hello Lucifer, what brings you here tonight?” 

He's always slightly surprised by how quickly his own personality shifts when Lucifer is around. It's mostly due to his older brother being so insanely intimidating, but he wishes he cared less about what Lucifer thought of him. 

“Nothing in particular, I just thought it would be nice to have a meal with my brothers.” Lucifer drones, fingers rolling the wine glass in small circles in front of him. 

“oh. Alright.” What was he really supposed to say? He never feels comfortable making small talk with Lucifer and they aren't exactly close enough for anything too personal. It's probably best that he just gets to the point.

“Uhm, I actually wanted to ask you something.” Castiel says softly, picking at his nails under the table. 

Lucifer raises an eyebrow and picks up his wine to sip at it. “Alright?”

Castiel swallows and tries to think of a way to ask that will work in his favour. Why did this have to be so hard? Lucifer is his brother, he should just be able to ask without expecting the absolute worst out of it. It's not like he's asking for something ridiculous, or for money. No, all he wants to do is have some fun with his new friends and the guy he may or may not be starting to like a little more than he should.

“I was invited on a trip with some of my friends-.”

“That charming fellow from outside?” Lucifer asks with a taunting smirk.

Damnit. Of course he had heard. He needed to remind himself to kill Dean later.

“Ah, well yes, he would be one them.” Castiel stutters.

Lucifer doesn't say anything, just raises his eyebrows slightly and focuses his gaze on his wine. He even looks like he's already bored by the conversation.

“Anyway, I was invited to go on a road trip during break and I already have money and we have transport and everything is basically sorted, I just wanted to make sure that it was alright with you.” Castiel continues carefully, trying to make sure he sounds the right amount of hopeful.

Lucifer hums as he takes a sip of his wine and then smiles at Castiel, but there doesn't seem to be anything behind it, he still looks bored. “And what of your school work? Hows that going?”

Castiel looks up quickly at his brother, his confusion at the question clear on his face. “It-it's good, really good. Dean- my friend from earlier has been helping me out sometimes actually.” He's trying to cast Dean in a good light now, hoping it's going to help his case.

Lucifer nods slowly, still running his fingers over his wine glass. “I'm just making sure that my little brother is doing his best.”

He's just trying to make sure his little brother isn’t wasting his money, is what Castiel thinks Lucifer means to say. Not that it would matter if he did, Lucifer has enough money to pay for Castiels whole group of friends to go to school ten times over if he wanted to.

“I really am Lucifer.” Castiel says softly. He hates that he sounds so weak and submissive, but it's the only way to get in Lucifers good books.

“You can go on the trip Castiel.” Lucifers sighs and Castiel nearly falls out of his seat.

“But” Lucifer continues with a raised eyebrow. “I'm only allowing this because Gabriel helped make some of your case for you earlier on, and from what I can gather you have actually been working really hard.”

Castiel nods enthusiastically, holding himself back from feeling too irritated by Gabriel going behind his back to Lucifer. Considering it had helped him out a lot, it doesn't seem necessary.

“I really, really have. Thank you Lucifer.”

Lucifer shrugs nonchalantly as Gabriel chooses that moment to make his way into the room with dinner.

“Who wants only slightly burnt chicken fillets?” Gabriel asks excitedly and Lucifer rolls his eyes.

Castiel pays no attention to them though, he's too busy packing his bags in his mind and trying to envision what all they're going to get up to. He can finally feel the excitement Dean was feeling earlier on when they were the in car and as soon as his thoughts stray to the other man, his chest constricts.

He's going on a road trip with Dean Winchester.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone isn't sure what the back packs look like: https://twitter.com/redbull/status/563024320470200320  
> (except obviously... not Redbull)  
> and if anyone is curious this is kind of how I imagine the bracelet Cas was looking at looks like: http://store.unionlosangeles.com/products/rose-gold-plated-anchor-leather-bracelet
> 
> Thanks again for reading guys. I'm super excited about the next upcoming chapter and I'm just hoping I have enough time to be able to get it out soon!


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vacay time!!!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so i wasn't entirely impressed with myself with the last chapter.. and apparently dissatisfaction leads to motivation because I'll probably be posting two chapters today. If not today, then tomorrow. It was only supposed to be one chapter but it kind of got away with me so I decided to split it. YAY??

 

Castiel stares out of the window at the winding coastline and lets himself drift into the calm atmosphere around him as the music being played in the micro bus lulls him into a state of contention. He couldn't feel any better in this moment, watching the ocean through the line of trees along the side of the road as they drive. He's sitting in the very backseat next to a snoring Dean, with Charlie lying down on the middle seat and Ash driving while Kevin mans the radio from the passenger seat.

He only met Ash and Kevin when they all met early that morning outside of Charlies dorm to pack the bus and get on their way, but he's already decided that he finds them interesting and rather likeble. They had both seemed so ecstatic at meeting him and had said how excited they were to finally meet the new friend that had been taking up so much of Deans time. It hadn't been a rude comment though, they had genuinely seemed happy to meet him.

He realised within the first few minutes of meeting Kevin that they had a lot in common and had somehow managed to get into a rather heated conversation on the Universities choice in philosophical authors for reading assignments, both of them agreeing that they probably could have set a way better standard even just as students. The conversation had Castiel growing fond of Kevin instantly because he was actually studying micro biology and he's just been reading his room mates English Studies class books for _fun_.

Ash is another story however. Oh Castiel likes him enough but he's a bit strange to say the least and Castiel can't always tell if he's being serious or making a joke or not and it puts him a little bit on edge every time Ash asks him something because he has the smallest feeling that he may be pulling his leg or making subtle jokes that Castiel isn't catching. He's also not exactly sure what Ash is studying. He had looked like an art student at first, with his long hair and laid back dress sense but as far as Castiel can tell, it's not art. No it's more of a wide spectrum of smaller classes with no real link connecting any of them, he had mentioned (among many others) something about a “basic ecology conservation class”, a feminists studies class and even a class on “Guerrilla Altruism”, basically it seems as if Ash is readying himself to protest the world into a better place which Castiel can respect so he hadn't bothered Ash about the details, he'll save his questions for when they've gotten to know each other a bit better.

He alternates his gaze between the coastline and the sleeping man next to him. He slides his gaze over to Dean who is taking up most of the back seat, curled in on himself on his side, with an arm thrown over his head, probably to block out the sun. Castiel smiles at the little noises he's making, his snoring isn't _bad_ though. On the contrary, Castiel actually finds it rather endearing and maybe slightly amusing and he wonders briefly about teasing Dean about it when he wakes up, but quickly changes his mind. He's learned that even though Dean is all talk, he's actually very fragile and he wouldn't want Dean to be wary of falling asleep in front of him ever again because Castiel has made him self conscious of his snoring, especially after realising how much he likes it. 

He tries to scold himself for feeling that way about anything Dean related but he doesn't get very far before he's convinced himself that it doesn't hurt to notice things about someone, even if you've told this particular someone that you don't want anything more than friendship from them. Castiel is still trying to figure out why on Gods beautiful, green earth he would say such a thing, when he notices Dean start to shuffle around and he averts his eyes back to the sea and smiles. He was already feeling happier than he's felt in a very long time. 

 

 

* * *

 

Dean opens his eyes slowly so that he doesn't have to deal with the full force of the sun all at once, but even though he's shielded a good portion of his face with his arm, he still feels like he's been blinded when he peeks his one eye open. He's momentarily confused by where he is, squinting confusedly at the back of the car seat in front of him until he spots Castiel on the other end of the car.

He's staring out the window with crazy ruffled hair and a dreamy expression on his face and Dean notices the small smile pulling at his lips too. He'd make fun of Castiels music video moment if he wasn't enjoying the site so damn much. He had somehow known that Castiel was going to enjoy himself and he mentally pats himself on the back for having the balls to actually ask him to come with in the first place because they haven't even really gotten anywhere that special yet, but the guy is already looking as if he's just discovered his favourite place in the world. 

Honestly Dean had been getting a bit worried about the guy lately, he's been covering himself in work and Deans pretty certain that he had seen a few extra credit assignments lying around from time to time as well, which he can't seem to make sense of because why would Cas think that he needs to burden himself with so much extra work when he's clearly doing so well already? He knows this because he's peaked at Castiels work when he's gone to the bathroom a few times and  _holy crap_ had Dean felt mentally inferior after that. 

Seriously the guy is like some sort of English master or something, you'd think that would at least wipe that worried look off his face from time to time. 

Which is why Dean can't stop his own lips from pulling up in a smile as he continues to stare. Oh yeah, he's staring. He probably shouldn't do that right? Because staring is rude and all and because it's Cas and he probably shouldn't be staring at him like this if he still hasn't decided on what the hell he's going to do with the knot that forms in his chest every time he sees the blue eyed grump. 

He's tried to ignore it, he really has, but he's so  _fond_ of Cas that he's actually started to get frustrated with himself every time he has the random urge to text Cas and tell him what he's doing or that he's actually trying out one of the books he heard Cas say that he likes, just to be able to talk about it with him. He even made hamburgers a few nights back with the intention of inviting Cas over to meet his mom and Sam, but of course he had chickened out at the last minute. 

The whole issue is that Cas has already said no to Dean. Twice. So he's not about to go making a fool out of himself again in the hopes that the next time may or not be different. He knows that Cas likes him, that much is obvious otherwise they wouldn't be spending as much time together as they have been lately. The only thing Dean doesn't know is, is in what way Cas likes him. 

He doesn't thinks it's in a sexual way, because Cas has already said he's not like that and that he doesn't place importance on sex.. Not that, that really matters to Dean too much anyway, he could be mature about that sort of thing if he wanted to, it's just...different to how people have been around him in the past unless of course they were part of his friends group. So maybe that's really just what this is? Just a pretty good friendship with some mild flirting going on every now and again. The thought does nothing to satisfy his restless mind on the whole situation, but he had decided back when he and Cas had, had their little talk, that he would rather try to be friends with the guy than avoid him because of his own personal inability to control himself and yes he'll admit it, his self consciousness may or not play a roll in the matter too.

He still hasn't managed to look away when he notices Cas' eyes twitch quickly in his direction and then quickly shift back to staring out of the window like a naughty child that's been caught doing something he's not supposed to be doing. Dean doesn't think too much of it, but it is pretty funny and he chuckles despite himself and stretches, lounging his feet on Castiels lap.

“Good morning sunshine.” He sighs, smiling widely as Cas turns a raised eyebrow in his direction.

“Good afternoon.” Castiel retorts.

Dean just shrugs and tosses both arms behind his head. “Potato, tomato.” 

“I'm not sure that's how the saying- Hey!” Castiel glares at Dean whilst shoving at the feet that have just been digging into his ribs. There's no real animosity behind the glare though and Dean takes pleasure in finding that Castiel is actually ticklish. 

“Dean, what are you doing to my poor Castiel back there?” Charlie scolds playfully from the seat in front of them. “I will get Kevin to kick your ass!”

“Oh no. No I'm not getting involved. You kick your own friends ass.” Kevin calls from the front, not even bothering to look back at them. 

“Well maybe I wouldn't be so annoying if we could just eventually stop!” Dean groans out, rubbing his hands over his face. It feels like he's been in this small space for days! Although he doesn't mind getting to pick on Cas every now and again, they definitely need to stop over somewhere and soon before he loses his mind and the mobility in his legs.

“Seriously though how long have we been driving for? Because it looks like the sun is starting to set.” He squints out of the window past Castiel at the horizon. Okay so not sunset but that's definitely late afternoon. He doesn't miss the serene smile that settles itself on Castiels face when he follows Deans gaze out to the horizon. Damn he looks so sappy. It's kind of cute actually. 

“Man we've been drivin' for about... What like eight hours now?” Ash drawls from the drivers seat, looking over at Kevin for confirmation.

“Yup.” Kevin confirms. “It's just after four now. We should probably be looking for a place to park off.”

Dean sees Castiels head shoot back from staring out the window and he frowns towards the front of the car. “Did you just say ' _park off'_ ?” 

Charlie giggles and moves to lean over the back of the seat and regards Castiel with an amused expression. “Well yeah Cas. That's why we brought the tent, even though I'm pretty sure I'm gonna be sleeping in the bus.”

“We're just going to pitch a tent on the side of the road?” Castiels voice has risen an octave and Dean is incredibly amused by the shocked look on his face. Clearly no one had actually thought to speak to Castiel about what they were going to be doing, but in all fairness he hadn't really thought he had needed to. 

The three towards the front of the car all burst into laughter and poor Castiel is still awaiting an answer in what seems to be slight horror. 

“No Cas, we're not going to park on the road. We're not hobos!” Charlie giggles, rolling her eyes. “We're going to sleep on the beach. Duh.” Charlie says it as if that is the most obvious thing in the world and Dean guesses that to everyone in the car except Cas, it is pretty obvious.

Castiels eyes widen even more than Dean thinks is possible or safe for the nerve endings attaching his yes to his head. “On the  _beach_ ?” He says in the same tone as before. Apparently that idea is just as bad as camping out on the side of the road.

“It just makes sense Cas.” Dean offers gently, although he does let his tone reveal just how funny he finds this. “We don't actually have enough money to stay overnight anywhere and Ash and Kevin wanna do their surfing thing too.” 

Castiel tilts his head in that little way he does when he's confused and Dean tries not to think about how much he likes it. “Bu-but... That can't actually be allowed can it?” Castiel stutters, throwing worried glances between everyone in the car.

“It's not.” Kevin says matter-of-factly. “That's why we pick the most secluded beaches and park in a rocky area.” 

everyone, including Dean, nods in agreement with Kevin. They'd done it a few times before. Granted those other times hadn't been planned. They had happened because they were driving back from visiting one of the members in their little groups family for a long weekend and they had overestimated their ability to drive through the night. 

Castiel is shifting uncomfortably in his seat and isn't even looking up at any of them anymore. “I'm not sure I like that idea. It seems a bit risky.” He says softly, staring down at his hands.

Deans heart sinks a little when he realises just how uncomfortable Cas actually looks about the whole thing. They really should have told him, but if he's honest, he kind of knew Cas wouldn't have liked the idea and he didn't want to give him any reasons not to go on the trip. 

“Hey.” Dean says as he shifts to sit up and look at Castiel properly. “We're not looking to get ourselves or you into trouble. We've done this before and I wouldn't drag you into something that was going to get you locked up or something.” Dean smiles reassuringly when Castiel eventually decides to look up at him. 

Dean hopes that he can get Castiel to calm down about the whole thing and just go with it. The chances of them getting caught are extremely slim. There really aren't ever any people around with the areas they go to, when they say secluded, they mean it, that is pretty much the whole point. No towns in the nearby vicinity means no tourists because there's nowhere to stay and better yet, no cops or beach patrol or whatever else was out there. 

“I know we're kind of a sketchy group of people Cas but I promise you we're not exactly rebels.”

“Yeah, and that includes Ash.” Charlie says winking at Castiels growing smile.

“I'm workin' on it!” Ash calls from the front, making Castiel huff out a laugh that has Dean breathing a sigh of relief. 

“I trust you.” Castiel answers softly looking around at everyone to include them all in the statement. Dean finds his chest warming at the gesture. Castiel trusting him is one thing (Something which he doesn't take lightly, just stores it away for good reference), but to be able to trust Ash and Kevin, two of Deans very best friends so easily after only knowing them for a few hours makes Dean weirdly happy and something else, maybe pride? He lets that conclusion go very quickly though, thinking it a bit strange having that sort of reaction.

“I just... I'm not exactly a rebel either.” Castiel continues, narrowing his eyes at Dean as if he expects him to laugh or something. He does laugh of course, but only because that wasn't exactly a secret Castiel was hiding from all of them.

“We know Cas.” Dean chuckles, patting Castiel on the shoulder and letting the touch linger a little longer than normal. He tells himself it's because he's trying to be friendly and comforting but a small part of his own mind is yelling at him to get a grip on himself.

Castiel doesn't seem to mind though, as per usual Dean touching him doesn't seem to be a problem, which Dean tries not to be cocky about considering how weird Castiel is about everyone else even getting near his personal bubble. 

They drive for about another half hour before Ash and Kevin finally decide on the perfect destination to stop. The beach is covered in large near-black rocks and there's a slight incline from the dirt road they had to take to get to it, leading down to the sand so it's even more out of site, which is pretty damn awesome and Dean and Kevin spend about five minutes just high-fiving and patting Ash on the back for his eagle eyes and good intuition. 

They wait on the beach while Ash maneuvers the microbus down the incline towards the beach and once he's parked, they set off trying to get everything ready before the sun goes down. It's already hard to see in the deep oranges being cast around them and the battery powered lanterns they set up don't seem to help all that much either, the setting sun casting shadows over everything important but not actually being low enough for their lanterns to be of any help. 

Castiel isn't being much of a help either. Dean shakes his head as he looks over at Castiel. He's standing with a tent pole in his hands and he was so close to actually doing something, but it's like a little bird being distracted by something shiny. That's how Dean would describe Cas right now, staring out over the ocean as the sun sets, that stupid, serene smile back on his face and the piece of tent Dean needs still in his hands.

“Cas I'll get you a sunset poster, just help me out here will ya?” Dean grunts, trying to hold the tent up, whilst stretching his arm out to Castiel, gesturing for the tent pole. “This is your tent too.” 

Unfortunately they had only had enough room for the one tent, that and the fact that between all of them they actually only owned one tent. So three people would be able to fit in the tent and two people could easily fit onto the bus seats. 

“I don't think a poster will ever do it justice.” Castiel sighs as he turns back towards Dean, still smiling and hands him the tent pole.

Dean smirks and gets to work fixing up the rest of the tent. As he expected, Ash and Kevin had disappeared as soon as the bus was parked to explore the beach and find just the right place for the waves and the current and some other crap that Dean just really doesn't understand. He couldn't be bothered with their surf stuff, he's perfectly happy to stay on the shore where he has less chance of getting eaten by a giant squid or piranhas or something.

Okay he knows there's no piranhas in the ocean, but ever since watching the movie “Piranha” he can hardly take a bath without worrying that the little suckers are going to work their way through the pipes and into his bubbles. He'd expected the movie to be funny. And it was. He just... doesn't really want to take any chances.

Dean and Castiel manage to set up the tent with less hassle than he had expected and once Kevin and Ash had gotten back from their exploration, they helped Charlie set up a fire and get out the only two fold out chairs that they could fit amongst everything else in the bus and put out a few towels for those who would be sitting on the sand. 

The fire has been nurtured into a decent sized flame and everyone is starting to settle down now that the sun has all but disappeared beyond the ocean. They all insist that Charlie take one of the deck chairs, claiming that it had nothing to do with her being a girl and everything to do with her being surprisingly prissy about getting sand in unwanted places, which is actually understandable. Dean was then going to insist that Castiel take the other one, him kind of being a guest and all, but the guy had looked so happy to sit on the beach towel on the sand and had almost run to it when they had started to speak about who would take a chair.

Dean shakes his head at Castiels eagerness and moves over to sit next to him. Castiel shuffles over slightly to allow Dean some more space, even though it's not necessary, Dean doesn't exactly plan on sitting too far away. He plops down with a huff and winks at Castiel, he's pretty sure that the gesture causes Castiel to fluster momentarily but he can't be sure in the low light of the fire. They leave Ash and Kevin to fight over the chair, which doesn't happen either because Ash also seems pretty content to take his place on a beach towel with one of the pillows he brought along too. 

They haven't even settled in properly yet before Ash is bouncing straight back up and walking quickly towards the bus mumbling something about forgetting the most important thing. He comes back two minutes later with a case of beer in each hand. 

“Ash! Is that why I wasn't allowed to bring my extra bag?” Charlie shouts, pointing at the beer with a scandalised expression on her face. “Because you needed to make space for your _beer_!” 

Ash just looks over at Charlie blankly. “Ah... yeah.” 

Charlie continues to glare at him for a few seconds before shrugging. “Cool.” 

Ash smirks and walks around the small circle offering everyone a beer. “But you know, I'm not totally selfish.” Ash explains as he hands Charlie a beer. She quirks an eyebrow at him, waiting for him to explain. 

“I brought Tequila too.” He continues, smiling proudly.

Charlie puts a hand to her chest dramatically “You sir. Are a saint.” 

Dean snorts at his friends, they really are a bunch of misfits, but he can't imagine having them any other way. He feels Castiel lean in close to his ear and he startles a bit. 

“Is that why we worked the market? To get money for booze?” Castiel asks softly next to him, his tone playful. Dean feels a small chill down his spine at having Castiels breath in his ear like this. 

“Of course!” Dean chuckles “But you know, also for the food and gas and all that other unnecessary crap.” 

Castiel just smiles and shakes his head while he opens his beer and takes a long sip. 

Dean raises his eyebrows and smirks at Castiel once he's put the beer down. Damn, looks like Cas is going to be having a good trip.

Castiel notices Dean staring at him and glances back sheepishly. “What?”

“Oh nothing.” Dean says innocently, still smirking. “Just wondering if you're gonna be able to keep up this time.” 

Dean just knows that Castiel is blushing now. He can't see it but if the expression on the guys face is anything to go by he would bet that there's definitely crimson working it's way across his features and he's loving it. Castiel is just too much of an easy target.

“I can keep up just fine thank you.” Castiel grumbles, taking another long sip of his beer.

“Oooh, is that a challenge I hear from you Castiel?” Comes Kevins voice from the other side of the fire. “Because I don't think you really understand what you're getting yourself into, Charlie and I are pretty much lightweights, but Ash and Dean could drink a water buffalo under the table.” 

Dean doesn't think he should really be proud of that statement but that doesn't stop him. He glances over at Castiel smugly and shrugs. “He's got that right.”

If Castiel is intimated in any way, he doesn't show it. He just continues to look as relaxed as he was before, the only difference is the small smile he gives Dean as he shifts a little closer so that their knees are now touching and Dean can feel the heat from Castiels proximity. Or is that coming from the fire? Either way, it seems to have gotten way too warm all of a sudden and Dean has lost his cocky attitude to Castiels signature head tilt. 

“I guess we'll just have to see about that then won't we?” Castiel says casually, as if they were speaking about making plans to go to the mall or something and Dean has to once again control his thoughts as he stares at those frustratingly intense eyes. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If there are any problems please let me know! (^_^). Next chapter coming soon!!


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The vacation continues!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well here's the second half! I really do hope there aren't too many mistakes, it's really late here by me and I'm feeling slightly sleep deprived but I wanted to get this out before bed!

I did make a little mini playlist for this chapter (and for the last one) that you can find [here](https://soundcloud.com/readerconsumed/sets/chapter7). It's not completely necessary to listen to it, it just fits in with how I wanted the atmosphere to be, and only two of the songs on the playlist are actually mentioned in the chapter. Anyway! that's enough from me! 

 

 

* * *

 

They all managed to last pretty long actually. Although making their way through all of the beer they had brought with and about half a Tequila bottle (along with other stuff too) probably wasn't the best of decisions and Dean will be the first to admit that, but it's not like anyone in the group is known for making the greatest of decisions anyway, so what the hell.

They had begun innocently enough, heating the ready-made food that Kevin had whipped up the night before. The guy is a seriously amazing cook and Dean can never get over just how good his food is, so he ended up eating most of it, which in hind site was a good thing considering how much he drank.

After that though, was when the drinking games started and for the life of him he can't exactly pin point where his memory starts to get blotchy but he's pretty sure it was somewhere between “Fuzzy Duck” and “Kings”, both of which he had failed miserably at, Castiel laughing his ass of every time Dean had slipped up with the wording during Fuzzy Duck and even more so when he had to lick and stick a card to his forehead during Kings.

Castiel had, for the most part, actually seemed very normal. Dean is convinced he had somehow cheated them all and had used his sneaky secret agent skills to get out of drinking as much as everyone else.

Yeah he had messed up a lot during the drinking games too and Dean _did_ actually see him drink, but from what Dean's witnessed from Castiel in the past, there should be no way in hell that he had managed to be the most level headed one out of all of them, yet he was. Which Dean is actually a little disappointed by. Not only did he want to see Castiel on his ass, but he's had first hand experience about how... friendly he can be once he's started to drink and Dean was kind of hoping for a closer proximity between the two of them. Although he had gotten a few small surprises, like Castiel letting his hand linger on Deans leg, or pushing him playfully on the arm when Dean made one of many terrible jokes and then there was that moment where he had brushed the sand off of the back of Deans neck after he decided to take a tumble and had let his fingers stay there for a moment, trailing them up to Deans hairline, before seeming to catch himself and then withdrawing his touch quickly.

Dean had to stifle a frustrated groan on more than one occasion and he knows that his friends noticed it too. There were a couple of times where he had caught one of them staring at him and Castiel with knowing looks on their faces. Even _Ash_ had raised his eyebrows when he noticed Castiel leaning his hand on Deans leg.

This was all before they had all passed out in a drunken mess of course. They had laughed and danced around the fire and they had even splashed around knee deep in the waves until the early hours of the morning, the sun already beginning to rise before they had all decided that enough was enough and everyone had crashed in their respective places.

Well, at least that's what Dean is pretty sure happened, although at the moment as he stirs in the heat of the new day, he can't shake the feeling that he's alone.

Luckily his head doesn't feel as bad as he thought it would, probably because he's sweated everything out in the oven of a tent. That fact still doesn't make him brave enough to get up just yet, so he stays still for a few more minutes, listening to the waves and the blowing wind against the tent. Eventually he does start to get brave enough to try to open his eyes and he slowly peaks through his one eye and groans as soon as he's blinded by the ridiculous amount of light shining through the material of the tent. If he could just get his eyes open he may eventually be able to enjoy the day, but that is all seeming extremely difficult at the moment.

He decides to just get it over with. Like ripping off a band aid, even though he's never done that before because that has always seemed like a really stupid thing to do and he's pretty sure that would just make matters worse, but that's besides the point. He opens both of his eyes and squints painfully against the light as they try to adjust. He glances around the small tent and sure enough, he's alone. Where the hell is everyone? He thinks as he shuffles up into a sitting position and rubs at his eyes.

It's just then that he picks up some background noise that doesn't seem to be made by the wind or the ocean and he tries to train his ears onto it. It sounds like music.

Frowning and already not in the greatest of moods at all, Dean pushes himself up to his feet, feeling faintly smug about the fact that he only stumbles a little bit on his way out of the tent. He'll take whatever small victories he can get at this point. He shields his eyes from the sun as his feet hit the sand just outside the tent and he starts to look for where the music is coming from.

He doesn't need to look around for too long though, because he spots the culprit a little further down the beach in front of him, surf board embedded in the sand and a little battery powered radio seated next to him as he runs his hand up and down the length the board.

“Cas?” He calls confusedly, walking towards the mess of pretty awesome bed head.

Castiel turns around to face Dean with a delighted smile spreading across his face as he waits for him to get closer. “Good afternoon Dean.” He says way too cheerily for Deans current situation.

“Cas... what the hell-.” It's only then that Dean notices that Castiel isn't wearing a shirt. Well of course he isn't wearing a shirt, for some reason Dean wouldn't think Castiel to be the type of guy to go surfing with a shirt on. Wait... surfing?

“Cas, are you... what are you doing?” Dean mumbles out groggily, still trying to find his bearings but coming up blank as he stares at Castiel with his arm around the board. “You surf?” He manages incredulously.

Castiels smile shifts from cheery to just slightly shy as he runs a hand through his hair and glances up at the board. “Well... yeah, I mean Kind of.” He shrugs. “Our father used to have a beach house and Gabriel would take Anna and I down there sometimes and we learned how to surf. It's been a while though, but I saw that Ash and Kevin packed an extra board and couldn't help myself.” Castiel is rambling now, his voice rising a little bit with worry. “You don't think they'll mind do you? I don't want to make anyone upset.”

Dean raises his eyebrows as he tries to take in everything Castiel is saying. It's kinda hard when your brain feels like mush though. “No Cas, no they really won't mind. They bring that extra board every time, kinda hoping that they can get Charlie or me out into the water.” He shakes his head as he says that. They are really dreaming if they think they could ever get him out there. “But you go ahead man. Knock yourself out.”

Castiels smile picks up again at Deans reassurance. “Great!”

Dean smiles back lazily at him. Geez he really likes it when Cas smiles. Especially like that, because he looks like the happiest dork in the world and Dean gets to witness it. Dean is just about to ask Cas how long he's been awake for, when he's distracted by the music coming from the small radio.

_What's it gonna take_

_What's it gonna take_

_And you... yeah you_

_What's it gonna be_

“What's with the hippie music?” He asks playfully, smirking triumphantly when a frown crosses Castiels face.

“It's not _Hippie_ music Dean!” Castiel pouts. “They're called the 'Kongos' and they are _alternative_.” He continues with a huff and a dramatic eye roll. “Just because it's not ancient like the music you listen to doesn't mean it's not good.”

Deans head jerks up quickly and he points a finger in Castiels direction. “Don't you dare.” He warns. He may like Cas, but that sure as hell isn't gonna give him a free pass to knock his music.

Castiel just smirks smugly at him. “I was joking Dean.”

Oh so is that how they're going to play it now?

Dean doesn't say anything, just purses his lips and nods his head slowly as he stares at the radio. “Well, enjoy, I'm going back to bed.” He knows exactly why he's running away right now. Firstly he's grumpy and hungover and as Sammy always says, he's never been one to be on the receiving end of a joke.

“You don't want to paddle out with me?” Castiel asks frowning and stepping forward a little after Dean.

Dean turns to him and barks out a loud laugh, which Castiel doesn't seem to get, or appreciate so he just continues to frown.

“Ah yeah, not gonna happen.” Deans says still chuckling and then gestures between himself and the board. “It just doesn't work.”

Castiel looks between the board and Dean contemplatively and then something very close to humour crosses his face before it settles on a blank expression. “Yes... I guess the ocean can be _very_ scary sometimes.”

The bastard.

It's not like Dean hasn't heard it all before. He's been called 'chicken' by Ash and Kevin every single time they've tried to get him on a board. So it's not like this should be any different, but it is. Because it's Cas saying it this time and the way he had said it was so damn condescending and smug that Dean almost growls at him as he stalks off back to the tent and tugs on his swim shorts and then stomps over to the bus and yanks another board off the roof and then stomps back towards Castiel. He's not sure how it's even possible but Castiel seems to look even more smug than he did before and it only helps to spur Dean on.

“Well?” He growls as he brushes past Castiel and towards the water. “Are we doing this or what?”

“Of course.” Castiel remarks from behind him and Dean can hear the smile in his voice.

He may not know how to surf but at least he body boarded when he was younger, so he manages to paddle out just fine, his annoyance helping to push him faster than Castiel as they duck their boards under the oncoming waves in order to get out to the calm waters.

When they eventually do stop, Dean is surprised by how tired his arms actually are. Damn, surely he's not so weak that he's already tired? He can't let Cas know though, so he steadies his breathing and sits up straight on the back of his board and glares at Castiel as he makes the last few strokes to where Dean is.

Castiel smiles innocently as he sits back on his own board and stares at Dean with his head tilted ever so slightly, waiting for him to speak.

“You're a really smug asshole you know that?” Dean bites out as they both sway on their boards.

“I know nothing of the sort.” Castiel replies coolly, running his hands gingerly over the surface of the water on both sides of him.

“Yeah well you are.” He mumbles, staring down at his board as it rocks. Why the hell had he done this?Dean then remembers he was actually going to ask Cas something before his ego had gotten the better of him. “Where is everyone anyway?”

Castiel turns his head towards the shore and squints against the glare. “Still sleeping I'm sure. Charlie is in the bus, so is Ash... And I found Kevin sleeping behind a small shrub a little further down the beach.” Castiel smiles as if he finds what he saw incredibly amusing. “I thought I should wake him up, but he looked comfortable and he wasn't in the sun, so I decided it was probably best to leave him be.”

Dean just snorts. “Good instincts. Never wake a sleeping Kevin.”

There's a slightly bigger swell that passes by them as Dean speaks and he's reminded of exactly where he is and his stomach clenches as he looks out to the open water, at how calm and ominous it looks to him. He looks back at Castiel and he's also looking out to the open water, but the asshole looks so damn happy it makes Dean clench his jaw. It's almost frustrating enough that he nearly doesn't realise just how good Castiel looks right now. He's fairly well built actually and _tanned._ When the hell does Castiel find the time to get a tan? For the life of him, Dean can't understand why Castiel was so self-conscious when they were getting changed at the Market the other day.

“Okay so let's just get this over with.” Dean mumbles, shuffling carefully on his board and trying not to look at the water for fear of seeing something beneath it. “I want to get back to the shore as soon as possible and without a piece of me missing because of a piranha attack.”

That makes Castiel chuckle and Dean is at least a little calmer now that he can actually enjoy the sound.

“Piranhas? I don't think so. Sharks yes, but even that is highly unli-.”

“Could you not say the 's word' right now please?” Dean squeaks out and then eyes the water with growing paranoia.

Castiel is trying to hold back his amusement and he purses his lips slightly before he speaks again. “But piranhas are okay?”

Dean sighs and tries to be as inconspicuous as possible as he paddles himself closer to Castiel. He just figures they'd do way better if they were closer together right? Sharks don't attack things when there looks like there's more than one or if it looks like it's bigger than they are right? He has no idea where he's getting this information from but it's comforting non the less.

“It's okay to talk about Piranhas because even though the thought scares the shit outta me, it's still not really realistic.” Dean shrugs as he eventually works his way next to Castiel, having to look over his shoulder slightly at him now as they're facing opposite directions. “Whereas that other thing you mentioned? Yeah that's not okay.”

Castiel seems to ponder that for a seconds before he nods understandingly. “Alright, I get it.”

Dean breaths a sigh of relief and shudders slightly as a cold current passes under them. Geez that's creepy. Castiel has started speaking again, something about how Dean is going to need to place his feet just right on the board when he eventually tried to stand up, but Dean doesn't catch any of it because just then, he feels something move against his foot.

“What the _fuck_ was that?” Dean yells as he jumps and stares with wide eyes at the water, trying to catch site of whatever it was that just touched his foot.

Castiel frowns worriedly at Dean and then turns his gaze towards the water. “What? What happened?” He asks, eyes still skimming over the water.

“Something touched my foot.” Dean says between clenched teeth. He's going to die. This is how Dean Winchester dies. All he can hope is that it better not be a pansy ass looking shark either, because if he's going to die this way it better damn well be a Great White.

Castiel ducks his head a little and Dean notices him cover his mouth with his hand and his shoulders are shaking slightly. Great, now he's being laughed at.

“I'm not messing around Cas!”

Castiel is taking deep breaths now as he tries not to laugh outright at Dean. “Dean it was probably _my_ foot.” He doesn't even try to hold back his laughter this time as he continues, controlling himself proving to be a little too hard. “Or a little fish.”

That was no foot. It could possibly have been a fish but it wasn't a foot. “Cas I'm not stupid I-.” That's when he feels something brush his foot again quickly and then disappear.

_Screw this!_

“I'm out.” He says shaking his head and pushing past Castiel so that he can paddle back to shore. “I am fucking _out_.”

He lies down on his board and starts paddling hard. He's slowed down a bit when Castiel grabs his ankle and tries to yank him back. “De- Dean stop! Just relax.” He's in hysterics now, trying to get words out but he's laughing so hard that he has to let go of Deans ankle to hug his sides and wipe at his eyes as tears stream down his face.

“Cas, if you know what's good for you, you'll come back to shore with me.” Dean calls of over his shoulder, completely ignoring Castiels hysterics. He was annoyed at being laughed at but it's not like he wants Castiel to get eaten or anything.

Castiel just continues to laugh though, he's doubled over on his board and his laughter is getting drowned out by the waves as Dean gets closer to shore and then thankfully, he reaches the beach and he races out of the water at the speed of light, heart hammering against his chest.

When he looks back towards the water, it looks as if Castiel has managed to control himself, but even from the shore Dean can tell that he looks smug. Dean cups his hands over his mouth and yells out towards Castiel, he probably won't really be able to hear him but it's worth a shot.

“Castiel get your ass back to shore right now!”

Castiel puts his hands behind his ears and tilts his head slightly in a gesture that looks to say “I can't hear you” and shrugs.

Dean Frowns and tries again. “Come in!”

Castiel seems to hear him that time and he cups his own hands to his mouth and Dean gets ready to listen. “No.” he hears faintly over the waves.

Dean growls out towards the sea and yells back. “Now Cas!” That asshole is going to get eaten and Dean is going to have to deal with telling Castiels family. He kinda liked Gabriel when he first met him, he doesn't want to be the one to tell him that Cas got eaten by a sea monster!

Castiel cups his hands against his mouth again and what he says next has Deans mouth drop open. “It _was_ me. Sorry!”

Dean stands there flabbergasted for a few more moments before he huffs angrily, flips Cas off and stalks away. He can actually hear Castiel laughing again over the waves and it makes his face heat up. What an ass. Who plays with someone like that? That shit's not funny!

As he stalks away he notices just how embarrassed he is by his own reaction. He must have looked like a total idiot to Cas! He tries to picture what he must have looked like and the image he gets actually surprises him by making him snort out his own laugh. Despite being a little annoyed at what Castiel just pulled, he's also pretty impressed and a lot more amused than he would expect. Weird.

As soon as he makes it back to the bus and leans his board up against it, he chances a glance back out to where Cas is. He hasn't caught any waves yet, it doesn't even look like he's trying to, he's just sitting with his board facing towards the open ocean and he's just... sitting. Dean hates to admit it at this moment, him being upset with Cas and all, but he loves the sight of him out on the open water, it's so calm even though he's still worried for the guys safety, he can't help it appreciate the sight and he smiles to himself as he leans up against the side of the bus and knocks loudly on its door.

“Okay it's like three in the afternoon already are you guys ever going to get up?” He yells into the window of the bus where Charlie is lying on her back with her arms thrown over her face and Dean would sympathize with her if he wasn't her friend. But he is, and it's just funny.

“It's only two forty-seven you monster!” She groans, moving lazily to swat at him through the open window.

“It's still mornin' to me Winchester, go back to bed!” Ash calls from the back seat, his head buried deep under his pillow.

“That's cool Ash, I just thought you might want to join Cas out in the water, but I guess no-.”

“Cas surfs?” Ash asks quickly, interrupting Dean, his head peaking out from under the pillow. “And he's out there right now?” His tone takes on a slight curiosity and it makes Dean smile.

“Yup. All alone too.”

Ash shoves the pillow away from his head and curls his body slowly upwards into a sitting position and then stretches out his arms and yawns. “Can't have that.” He states simply, climbing over the back of Charlies seat and then over her, despite her protests and lazy punches and slides the door open. “Where's Kevin?” Ash asks as he squints against the sun. He doesn't even look like he's just crawled out of the back of a micro-bus after a night full of drinking, he just looks... like Ash.

“Cas said he saw him curled up under a shrub somewhere.” Dean chuckles.

“What is it with that guy and falling asleep in random places when he drinks?” Charlie sighs, obviously giving up her attempt at sleep and accepting defeat as she stumbles out of the bus and glares at Dean.

“I'll get 'em.” Ash grunts as he sets off in a lazy jog up the beach towards the nearest shrubbery to look for Kevin.

It's not even ten minutes later and Kevin and Ash have paddled their way out towards Cas, leaving Dean and Charlie to rummage through the bus for a pan to put over the fire to make food. Castiels radio is still playing in the background and even though Dean had made fun of him, he finds that he actually likes the music coming from it and he even moves it closer to them while they cook. He's still tapping his foot to the previous song when what he assumes is a CD skips half way through the song and onto the next one. He actually knows this band and he mentally high fives himself for not being totally in the dark when it comes to other bands and genres. He smiles when he listens to the lyrics and all he can think about is Cas when he hears them.

_I dig my toes into the sand_

_the ocean looks like a thousand diamonds strewn across a blue plain_

_I lean against the wind_

_pretend that I am weightless_

_And in this moment I am happy_

He finds himself staring out at Cas again as he glides across the waves with ease and then his chest is doing that weird constricting thing again and it's starting to make him worry.

“And what are you smiling at Winchester?” Charlie asks in mock curiosity as she stirs the scrambled eggs in the pan. He saw the looks she was giving him and Cas last night, she knows exactly what he's smiling at.

“Shut up.” He grumbles, but he carries on smiling

“Ooooo, someone's got it bad.” She sing-songs, a ridiculously wide smile breaking out across her face.

Did he really have it that bad? He's not stupid, he can tell when he likes someone or not, but did he really have it so bad that even Charlie, who has never been one to make a positive comment about Deans past relationships, sees it too? He shakes his head free of the situation and decides that it's too nice of a day to mull over feelings that may not even amount to anything if Cas wasn't for it anyway.

Once the other three finally manage to make their way back to shore at about five that evening, they all decide that it's probably best just to stay one extra night on the same beach and then make their way back on the road early the next day, since none of them feel up to driving and especially not during the night. They also decide that once they've made and had their dinner, it's straight to bed to sleep off the last of the Tequila.

It doesn't quite work out that way though and they still work in few drinks and only make it to bed just before twelve, which is actually the earliest Dean has ever seen any of his friends get to sleep so he's pretty impressed. He on the other hand can't sleep at all. It's about two in the morning and he's tossed and turned himself into frustration.

Kevin seemed to be having no trouble what so ever falling asleep it would seem, as he's already out like a light and moving his way across Deans side of the tent. He wonders briefly if Castiel is having just as much trouble falling asleep on the other side of Kevin as Dean is and he peaks over the tent hog between them to sneak a peak... but Cas isn't there.

Dean frowns at the open space on the other side of the tent and looks around as if hoping to somehow spot him hiding in a corner of the incredibly small tent, but obviously there's still no Cas.

Just then Dean notices the soft sounds coming from outside the tent, and it's very familiar to what he had heard that morning when he had woken up, so he decides he might as well investigate, since it's not like he's sleeping or anything. He creeps as silently as he possibly can out of the tent so as not to wake Kevin, even though the guy could easily sleep through a tsunami.

He breaths in the salty air as he sticks his head out the tent. He was at least hoping for a breath of fresh air but all he's getting is a lung full of humidity. He looks out in front of him, not even having to squint in the dark because the moon is actually so bright that he can see pretty clearly. And there further down, closer to the water is Castiel and his radio once again, except this time it's a bit softer and he's settled himself on his back on one of the beach towels.

Dean ducks back into the tent and grabs his own beach towel from his bag and makes his way down to where Castiel is. The music gets a little bit clearer the closer he gets and this time he actually has to hold back a snort when he hears it.

_Come my brother, put your hands up_

_Take your heart out, let go, come let go._

“More hippie music Cas?” He remarks playfully, making Castiel jump a little bit, but he smiles as soon as he sees Dean above him, placing his beach towel next to his and lying down.

“Xavier Rudd.” Castiel says softly, staring up at the stars. “Indie, folk, reggae... he doesn't really have a set genre.”

Dean smiles lightly and watches the side of Castiels face. “Yeah... so Hippie music then.” He's going to push his luck one of these days, but it's worth it to see the smile that spreads across Castiels face.

“Whatever helps you sleep at night Dean.”

Dean chuckles lightly and turns his attention to the stars. It takes his breath away momentarily as he realises just how many there actually are and just how _awesome_ the sky looks out here, how did he not notice this before?

“If it did then don't you think I'd actually be sleeping right now too?”

“You couldn't sleep either then?” Castiel asks with a slight crease between his brow as he turns his head to face Dean.

“Nah. But it's okay. This is way better than sleep anyway.”

Dean notices Castiel smile next to him, the glow from the moon making his teeth seem just a tad bit whiter and then he's back on his back, staring at the stars.

“I used to love to do this when I was younger.” Castiel says softly. “I would lie in the yard at night, on the grass and stare up the sky for hours, even though I couldn't really see very many stars, it was still the best part of my day.”

Dean tries to imagine a younger, possibly nerdier Castiel, lying in his back yard at night with that silly serene look on his face, while other kids were lying snug in their beds and the image makes Dean smile. “And your parents were okay to let you do that all night?”

Castiel doesn't answer for a while and Dean starts to wonder if he's actually fallen asleep or something before Castiel does eventually answer, voice still soft. “Well my mother wasn't around anymore during that time and my father... Well unless it affected his company in some way, I don't think he cared all that much about what I did.”

Woah. Okay so he had definitely struck a cord there. Dean doesn't really want to pry into Castiels personal life, but he can't help the curiosity he's feeling right now and his mouth runs away from him before he has chance to stop it.

“Is that why you're living with Gabriel?” Dammit. He could have phrased that better, a little more gently _at least._ He almost tells Castiel not to answer if he doesn't want to, but Castiel surprises him by answering.

“No... not exactly.” Castiel shifts his gaze nervously across the night sky and then he sighs, as if giving in. “I live with Gabriel because my father is in prison.”

Deans eyes widen and he leans up on his his elbow to regard Castiel with wide eyes, because _woah_ hewasn't expecting that.

“Ah... do you.. do you mind if I ask why?” He stumbles out, hoping he's not being to offensive by asking.

Castiel looks over at Dean and smiles, obviously finding Deans expression to be pretty amusing. “Not at all. He embezzled a huge amount of money from various accounts within his own company, mostly from trust accounts of the employees and the clients. He got sloppy one day and... he got caught.” Castiel shrugs nonchalantly, as if it's the most normal thing in the world. “Somehow my brother Lucifer had managed to keep his second position in the company, they didn't find anything on him, so it didn't make sense for him to be thrown out as well, and he seems to be trusted so he's still there. Anna and I moved in with Gabriel during my senior year of high school and He and Lucifer made an agreement, that Gabriel would house and feed us and Lucifer would pay for our school fees. Oh and Annas' flat, which Lucifer had allowed her to get, which is why she doesn't live with Gabriel and I anymore.”

Holy shit. Well that's a lot to take in. How does Dean respond to that? He didn't really know about Castiels whole family dynamic besides the fact that he stayed with Gabriel. This new information makes him feel all kinds of sympathy for Cas and he just wants to wrap the guy up in the biggest of bear hugs, but he doesn't want to make the moment too awkward, so he settles for placing his hand gently on top of Castiels and squeezing it, giving him a tight smile.

Castiels stares down at the hand over his own and then moves his gaze slowly up Deans arm towards his face and stops at Deans eyes, giving him that same intense look that has Deans chest constricting again. Castiel stares at Dean as if he's waiting for something, his eyes searching his face and before Dean can ask him what's wrong, he feels a soft hand slide up to the side of his face and a thumb running lightly over his cheek bone.

His breath catches in his throat as he stares back at Castiel with wide eyes. Was this happening? Was he dreaming? Had he even really left the tent?

“Dean?” Castiels voice is so low and it sends a chill up Deans spine. “When were you planning on kissing me again?”

Dean feels like his brain has just split in two when he hears that. He opens his mouth to speak but nothing comes out. He wasn't expecting Castiel to say something like that, but it's probably one of the best things he's ever heard in his life.

He must be taking to long to answer, because Castiel has surged forward and his lips are just short of Deans as he continues to stare at Dean questioningly, as if he's trying to make sure that what he's doing is alright. When Dean doesn't do anything but continue to stare, Castiel closes the distance and Dean actually breaths a sigh straight into Castiels mouth. His lips are so freakin' soft and the hand that was once on Deans cheek has moved back to card fingers gently through his hair as they both melt effortlessly into the kiss.

It's nothing like their first kiss. This time it's slow and soft and it feels as if they have all the time in the world. Castiel even stops at one point, just to rest his forehead against Deans and smile, placing smaller kisses on the sides of Deans mouth, before they sink back into a rhythm of content sighs and warm lips.

Best vacation ever.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> <3\. happy reading everyone.  
> Oh and the song mentioned while Dean and Charlie cook is called "Wish you were here" by Incubus. It's not on the playlist so just for interest sake :).
> 
> I have not had much more inspiration in the way of this story (it was not meant to turn out this long to begin with)
> 
> So I have concluded it at 10 chapters although I know it's not a proper ending or full in for stuff I've mentioned in the fic. 
> 
> Hopefully I regain some inspiration and finish it properly, but for now it's gonna stay as is


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